Love at First Sight
How I Met My Wife
I was in my teens, working full time in the civil service, and working part time as a barman (in the evenings Friday to Sunday) in the ‘George & Dragon’ pub (facing Temple Meads Railway Station), Bristol, for a bit of pin money.
Upon leaving school I joined the civil service, and six months into my civil service career met Eddy who joined the civil service as a temp; and we became close lifelong friends. Shortly after I met Eddy he was persuaded by a friend of his to try dancing classes, but would only go if I went with him. So one night after work we went together to a beginner’s class for ballroom dancing, to give a try; Eddy didn’t like it so didn’t go again, but I liked it and continued to go once a week.
Within a few months of me attending dancing lessons I met and became friends with Gail, a 16 year old dancing instructress. She already had a boyfriend, so it was purely platonic, but within a few months of knowing her she started to invite me to join her and her boyfriend at nightclubs, and once every few weeks I would take her up on her offer.
Then about three months later Gail visited the pub where I worked one Saturday morning in June, bringing her boyfriend and a 17 year old girl with her. They sat down at a table at the far end of the lounge and Gail came to the bar to order drinks. While I was serving her drinks she pointed to the girl sitting with them at the table and said to me “she fancies you”, then she took her drinks and sat down.
When she sat down, she said to the other girl, while pointing at me “he fancies you”; then she brought ‘Helen’, the other girl, to the bar and introduced us; it was ‘love at first sight’.
During my lunch break all four of us nipped into a local amusement arcade near Broadmead Shopping Centre, Bristol for an hour, and then I went back to work behind the bar for the rest of the afternoon. Gail brought her boyfriend and Helen back to the pub the following day, and again we all spent my lunch time together; and it was at that point that I asked Helen out for a ‘romantic meal’ the following day.
On the Monday evening I met Helen as arranged, and took her to the most expensive restaurant in Bristol that I could find, and during our romantic meal I proposed to her. She accepted my proposal and after a glass of wine she got tipsy, so I walked her home; and we parted with a romantic kiss on her doorstep.
On the Tuesday I booked the reception room at the pub where I worked for our engagement party on her 18th birthday, six months hence; and in the evening she introduced me to her parents.
The following week her dad invited me to join them on their week’s holiday for the following month (July) in Bournemouth. He arranged my accommodation (which I had to pay for) but took me in the car with the rest of the family. Then in August Helen and I took a day trip on a train to Hatton Garden, London, to buy each other engagement rings; and in February, on her 18th Birthday, we got engaged. The following year we bought our first home, and year after that got married; and have lived happily ever after.
Points of interest:-
Like me, Helen was going to the same dance school at the same time as I was, but on a different night, which is how Helen also met Gail (the dancing instructress).
And for about three months during that period, as well as inviting me to go to nightclubs with her and her boyfriend, Gail was also inviting Helen to go to nightclubs with her; but on the nights Helen went, I didn’t and vice versa. Hence why Gail ended up bringing Helen to the pub where I worked to introduce us; matchmake.
But it transpired that our introduction in the pub was not the first time I’d seen Helen. I had an old school friend (Martin) who I used to visit every Tuesday evening, and he happed to live just up the road from where Helen lived with her parents; and each evening when she got home from work and after tea, Helen would take her dog out for a walk, passing close to where Martin lived. So one evening, about two weeks before we were formally introduced I happed to pass Helen while she was walking her dog, as I was walking up the road to visit my old school friend; and although we didn’t know each other at that time, we both smiled at each other as we passed – a moment that stuck in my memory, and which I late recalled when I released where she lived and saw her dog.