Three little words have given a whole new twist to romance.
    “You've got mail!”
    Like the relationship between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in the movie of the same name, more and more relationships are beginning on the Internet.
    Love blossomed for Rush Limbaugh, radio talk show personality, on the Internet, where a woman, now his wife, caught his attention with her views on political issues.
    Ian Fleming recently saved his wife Teresa's life when he donated a kidney to her. Fleming, of England, married Teresa Dravk of York, Pa., in September after a romance that began on the Internet in the fall of 1997.
    There is something charming, even old-fashioned, about meeting eligible singles of the opposite sex through friends. But when friends don't come through, a person may have to turn to singles bars, personal ads and health clubs.
    And now, there's the Internet. According to some local couples, the Internet offers a low-cost, low-maintenance, stress-free method of getting to know whether you want to get to know a person better in person.
    Five years ago, when she was a student at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., Heather Williams began chatting with Gary R. Weller, who was living in Shepshed in the Midlands of England.
    She'd always been reluctant to give out her name or phone number. When she finally did, she met people she wasn't as comfortable with in person as she had been on computer, but she also met nice people with whom she shared interests.
    “I thought, 'Maybe these people aren't all psycho computer geeks after all,' ” she said.
    Weller, too, had doubts about becoming too familiar with an Internet pal.
    “But I decided, 'She's probably from America and wouldn't come all the way to England to harass someone.' ”
    So they exchanged names and phone numbers, and continued their online banter.
    “It was nothing serious,” she says. “He was only one of a couple people I talked to online.”
    In December of 1995, Williams visited Weller in England. They were married here six months later. Today, the 24-year-olds are living in Worcester with their 1-year-old daughter, Rowan. Weller is a personal computer technician for the Visiting Nurse Association.
    When the Wellers met, there was no initial uneasiness. And, since their marriage, both say, there were no major surprises.
    Teresa L. Burdett was living in Newport News, Va., when she began talking to Ernest F. Cataldo of Leominster on the Internet. For a time, they had been part of a group of about 20 people who met regularly on a chat line.
    Cataldo, 49, divorced, with three grown children, wasn't looking for romance. He went online “to have fun and be a comedian.”
    He said some women in the group were forward, rude and even crude, while Burdett was quiet. Her reticence attracted him, but he was scared away by her screen name, “Jezebel.”
    Then, he heard the 36-year-old Burdett had five children and the image of a mother appealed to him more than a racy Jezebel.
    They had their first private conversation on Valentine's Day, 1996.
    “I liked his sense of humor,” Burdett said. “A lot of men seemed to be looking for a woman and hit on me. He never did.”
    For five months, they talked about every subject they could think of -- important as well as trivial. After six weeks, Burdett gave Cataldo her phone number and they talked on the phone, too.
    By this time, sight unseen, they were talking about love and marriage.
    “We loved each other, but I didn't want it to be based on looks. I didn't want looks to be any part of it,” said Burdett. The only photos they exchanged were ones taken when they were 5.
    About five months after they met online, they met in Nashville, where Cataldo, who develops synthesizers and keyboard instruments, had business, and Burnett, who was working on a master's degree in nursing, was attending a seminar.
    She said that by the time she and Cataldo met, there was little they didn't know about each other.
    “We talked about our childhoods, families, hopes, dreams and silly things like 'Do you leave socks on the floor?' ” she said.“We went very slowly,”
    On an average day, they exchanged three or four e-mail messages. Cataldo laughed and said he'd saved every one.
    “Thousands,” he said, adding that he was particularly touched when she sent him profiles of each of her children, whose ages range from 7 to 16.
    “I didn't care if she had one kid or one hundred,” he told friends who thought he was crazy to become involved with a woman with five children. “I love kids. She has sweet children, well-behaved and smart.”
    In August 1997, Burdett moved to Leominster, where she is a manager at the Dress Barn. Burdett said her separation and divorce were difficult, and her children looked forward to moving to New England. She said they're doing very well in school, have made friends and are involved in many activities.
    The couple is renting a house where she lives with her children. Cataldo shares an attached apartment with a friend.
    The couple plans to marry in the spring.
    “It means a lot to both of us to be role models and examples to the kids,” said Burdett.