In March 1872, in Vienna, she met Eminescu, beginning a relationship that would last for the rest of their lives. At first he would visit the literary salon that she hosted. Their friendship had become love sometime between 1875, when they started dedicating poems to each other, and 1878 (sources vary). Their romance went through several ups and downs—for instance, Eminescu left for Bucharest in 1877 to edit "Timpul" and that year Micle published poems in which she expressed her sadness at being left behind. Her husband died in 1879, leaving her rather poor. She came to Bucharest to seek a pension and Eminescu publicly called her his fiancée, but further stresses intervened (including a stillborn child in May 1880) and while he took up the subject again in 1881, he was diagnosed with syphilis in 1883.