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Woman Who Kissed Random Man At Boston Marathon Gets Letter From His Wife

by Sean Levinson

A woman's search for the stranger she kissed at the Boston Marathon came to a close when she received a letter from his wife.

Female students of Wellesley College have been known to kiss competitors of the Boston Marathon, according to CBS News, but Barbara Tatge's daughter wanted her mom to take part in the tradition when she entered the college town for the marathon.

She dared her mother to find the best-looking guy in sight upon finishing the race and plant one on his lips.

The Tennessee native completed the challenge, but she did not expect the kiss would prove so difficult to forget.

Tatge's daughter tried to find the man through social media in a campaign that quickly gained massive media coverage.

She got what she wanted, but it wasn't the man who contacted her.

It was his wife. She wrote Tatge a letter, which was given to Tatge through local Boston-area newspaper The Wellesley Townsman.

The wife wrote while the popularity of the search gave the couple quite a few laughs, she'd appreciate it if her husband's identity was kept private.

An excerpt in The Wellesley Townsman read,

When this story aired on the news we were pretty surprised. For me, I'm not mad. Believe me, our friends have gotten a lot of mileage out of this story and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching them give my husband grief! While this may not be the ending that you had hoped for, that spontaneous, silly moment in Wellesley captured the fun, energy and spirit of the Boston Marathon. I greatly admire your spunk and courage and wish you many happy races in the future. Congratulations on your Boston finish!

Tatge replied the next day to praise the woman's attitude.

She said,

The letter was so kind and good-hearted. She's a great sport, and he's fortunate to be married to someone like her.

The result of her daughter's search also taught her an important lesson.

The marathon runner noted,

Moving forward, I'm going to revert to only kissing single men.

Tatge will put that plan into action when she competes in next year's Boston Marathon.

Citations: Boston Marathon kissing mystery solved (CBS News)