Sep 8, 2014

Anniversaries and a Romance Novelist in Training


by Jennifer St George

My husband and I just celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary last night…one week late!  I love marking our wedding bliss anniversary but I’m terrible with dates and forget every year.  I know. I know. Hopeless.  Fortunately my husband usually forgets too so no harm done.

The date I remember better than our actual wedding date is our ‘look across the room and fall in love’ date.  I was back in Australia (I was living in London) for my sister’s wedding when my brother invited me to a party of his friend.  I walked into the party, looked across the room and locked eyes with my now husband. Love at second sight (we'd briefly five years earlier) is possible. 

There were however…complications. We lived on opposite sides of the world. I flew back to London five days after we met.  This was prior to the internet, so we spent a fortune on phone calls. My future husband flew to London three months later, declared his undying love and said we could easily manage a long distance relationship until he finished his speciality training in two years time!  So, we committed.

I didn’t last though.  After nine months, I arranged to complete my Masters Degree in Australia instead of the UK.  So at least we were in the same country, but not the same city.  So for the next year we travelled between Brisbane and Melbourne.  Then finally after two and half years of lots of international and domestic travel, lots of phone calls and a box full of love letters, we ended up in the same city and were married six months later.

So, that was seventeen years ago and we are still going strong. So yes, we do forget our wedding anniversary but we never forget those incredible years of anticipation of starting our lives together. Good training for a romance novelist.

Love to hear about a date that really sticks in your mind...

13 comments:

  1. My hubby and I had a long distance relationship for 3 years too, Jen. He got a job in Canberra and I'd just started my training in Rocky so yeh...we traveled back and forth a lot and there were a lot of letters. We got married 2 weeks after I finished my training :-)

    I honestly don't know about a date that sticks in my mind. When you meet "the one" at 16 there's not a lot of dating going on and hubby doesn't have a romantic bone in his body! Lucky I love him :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great story, Amy.

    I think if you really love someone, long distance relationships are so doable. However, we had lots of people thinking it couldn't be done. I guess we are both proof that it can be.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! Am applauding you, Jen, on managing a long-distance romance (and Amy too!). Patience certainly wasn't my virtue when I met the DH.

    As for dates…I always remember the date of our first kiss. :-) I always remember our wedding anniversary too -- we deliberately chose Australia Day as it meant our anniversary would fall on a public holiday. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, first kiss. Yes, a good date to remember, Michelle.

      Great idea choosing Australia Day.

      Delete
  4. Yeah, we're not the only ones. We got married on Labour weekend, in NZ, and that's all I remember. Certainly don't know the exact date as it changes slightly every year, but we do know labour weekend was our wedding. It was very special with only ten of our family and we were married in the restaurant where we went on to celebrate.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a beautiful story Jennifer I started going out with my hubby when I was 15 and he was 17 we got engaged when I was 18 married on my 20th birthday and still very happily married 37 years later we have 4 children and 7 grandchildren and although there have been some ups and downs it is still fun

    Have Fun
    Helen

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's such a beautiful story, Helen. Thirty-seven happy years...so lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lovely story, Jen, but what is it with meeting 'the one' at the worst possible time? I met my hubby a few weeks before I left England to work in France. He had a job in England, so we did the letter thing for several months. I remember the excitement when a letter arrived, but more often than not I had to wait days and then they all came at once. (35 years married for us!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was the same, Claire. Loved those letters arriving.

      We often talk about what it would have been like if we'd actually been in the same city but think it was great the way we met. All those phone calls and letters meant we got to know each slowly and the anticipation of being together made getting together so much sweeter!!

      Delete
  8. Happy Anniversary! Thanks for sharing your story. So glad you were able to make it work.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks, Sharlene. We are thrilled we made it work too!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Happy anniversary and huge congratulations, Jen! And I love your own personal romance story - it's gorgeous!

    I remember the first time I went out with my hubby-to-be - it was Valentine's Day as we were driving home just after mid-night. It must have been auspicious because we've been together now for 33 great years.

    ReplyDelete