On
December 3 last year, Mr G and I were married in an intimate garden
ceremony on one very HOT day. After saying "I do" and my daughter
displaying some of her most terrible ever behaviour, we drank wine in
the sun, chatted with our closest friends and looked forward to spending
the rest of our lives together. As we said in our vows, I had waited
all my life to meet and marry the man of my dreams; for Mr G it was a
question of truly believing in the saying "third time lucky..."
I
always knew that I was destined for true, romantic love.
My
Grandad and my Old Nana here met as penpals during the Second World War, where
he was a young soldier. As I know the story, they wrote for many, many months
before his letters stopped. My Nana, being my Nana, and knowing there was a war
on, assumed he had met someone else. Unbeknown to her, he had been taken
captive by the Germans, been put on a ship that was torpedoed, and survived to
be sent to a Prisoner of War camp. It was after the war when he sent a telegram
on his release, it said “Will You Marry Me?”. She said yes and arranged to meet
him in New Zealand
at a train station. The train arrived, my Nana followed a young soldier around
trying to get his attention, all the while my Grandad, a different soldier, was
watching her, amused, from a far. They were married for 50 years.
My
own parents have been married now for forty years. They met after my Dad had
been in a collision with a train, he was the gravely ill patient and she was
the trainee nurse on night shift. As I understand the story, he told his nurse
she wasn’t experienced enough to look after him. He told his mother, on the
other hand, that she needed to go home; he needed to get some sleep so he could
be awake for his night nurse. They married on a whim, had three daughters, have
four beautiful grandchildren and despite what some may call ‘all odds’, they
remain married and in love with one another today.
Which
brings me to my original point; I always knew that I was destined for true,
romantic love.
I
think we can safely skip to me being 34. It still hadn’t happened, but still I
held hope. I was the very proud and doting mother of one Rabbit, a little
dot who every day still amazes me, and while she was and is still my world, I
found myself wondering when the true, romantic love story of my life would
begin. How can you not all be expecting this: cue music, cue romance…in walked GG.
As
some of you may know, and some of you may not, and all of you should agree to
never talk of this moment again, GG and I met on Trade Me. I
had just listed myself, as a photoless, curious, wannabe romantic. While I
received many “Hey there baby” messages, there were two that stood out, MAYBE
one that little bit more. It was day two of being online. I received a very
lengthy email which essentially said “I really like your profile, I’m really
interested in everything you have to say, you sound exactly like the sort of
person I want to meet”. It was quite some time after that I found out it was
his “catch them every time” stock standard letter that he sent to all the
girls.
After
some days of emailing back and forward, chatting, and complimenting each other
on our grasp of the written English language, including grammar, punctuation
and spelling, GG suggested we talk on the phone. I told him that I might call
when I felt brave. His words were that he was the nicest guy in the world and
we’d be good friends at worst. I called, he answered the phone straight away,
we chatted for some time. We arranged to meet. We even arranged to meet at what
I thought was a café of my choosing, at a time suitable to me, on a day even
that I was free. The Rabbit and I arrived late, my perfect little angel
proceeded to lie on the floor and embarrass me no end but I have to admit I
thought GG was lovely. We had coffee, he gave me a peck on the cheek, we left,
my phone buzzed a message from him within 20 minutes and I began to panic a
little that he was actually interested.
It
is here the story gets a little bit curious. While I went home, thought meh,
and wondered how to get out of the whole thing – to be told by my friend Kim
that she would babysit, I would be free on Friday night and it wouldn’t be her
fault if we didn’t get married, GG was going through his own scenarios: texting
the other girls that he had met on every other day of that week, at the same
time, at the same café. What I hadn’t realised, and thankfully for both of us I
didn’t realise until many months had past, that I hadn’t actually just been on
a ‘date’ I had been for an audition, for a position that had recently opened up
on GG’s social calendar, a position that might have been known to others as “GG’s
Girlfriend” but one that he himself had taken to refer to in terms of ‘the
seasons’. Not the weather, but the football seasons. To be clear, I was
auditioning for the role of “Off Season Three” and to make matters worse, it
has since become apparent that not only did I go on to fill the position
following Seasons One and Season Two, but all the Off Seasons not to mention
the Pre Seasons and countless intermissions in between, which had previously
been allocated on a strictly short term or should I say seasonal basis. I won’t
mention wives.
But
back to the romance. Our Friday night date wasn’t that good. It was ok. I had
to leap out of the car to stop him try to pash me and I wasn’t that
enthusiastic in relaying to Kim how the night had gone. I didn’t really think
I’d hear from him again, but for a man with queues of single women lining up at
his door, he was extremely persistent. I did quite like him. I was concerned
when he turned up with a huge stack of presents for Charlotte for Christmas, within a few weeks of
meeting, that I had in fact met a stalker. But I have to say it was very soon
after that, that he charmed the pants off me.
I
don’t know if my story to tell is one of true romance or if it quite lives up
to the stories that went before me, but I do know that GG, now Mr G is most
certainly for me, and for the Rabbit, a dream come true. We met after a time
where I was a solo Mum to a frequently very sick little girl and not only did
he love me and make me laugh, and make me love him, he formed a bond with my
daughter that is really so special. It was not terribly long into our
relationship when Charlotte
asked GG if she could call him Daddy. While I turned into a crazy fruitloop of
a worried thing, GG didn’t blink. It was like they had a need and a love for
one another, that it wasn’t really about me. There was always a promise that he
would be the Rabbit’s
Daddy and I think that watching GG with my daughter, is one of the things that
makes me love him the most.
I
am going to get all sad and soppy now so I’m going to stop. It has been a very
difficult year, for so many people, in particular the people that I have to
thank. I want to say Ang thank you so much for getting me here and organising
me, and supporting me and bridefying me, to J and P thank you so much for an
amazing day, you have been so lovely to have us all here, to Mum and Dad for
pretty much everything, to GG’s parents, to everyone else thank you so much for
coming, to my little flower girls and boy, to my Rabbit, I love you so much
baby girl and Mr G, thank you so much, for picking me out of all the girls you
auditioned that week, I am very happy that you have given me the part!
I cried!
ReplyDelete