I met John through mutual friends just after I had started University. I came home for the weekend to visit friends and they said that John would be coming along on Saturday night. I didn’t really think much of it and I wasn’t interested in a relationship away from Uni – it would never work and I wanted to experience student life single and free.
As it happened, we got on really well. I was instantly attracted to him, blonde, blue eyed and 6 foot 6 tall – a real South African! He was such a gentleman too, he seemed quite shy and modest but he was really great fun to be with. I went back to Uni and tried not to think too much about it but decided to go back home for another weekend a month later. We had another great night out with all our friends and at the end of the evening, John offered to walk me to my car. He asked if I would like to go out for dinner sometime and I said I would get in touch, I told him that my reading week was coming up and that we should do it then.
He took me to a lovely Italian restaurant and even had a red rose for me! Despite the fact that I had three years of university ahead of me our relationship grew – he was busy at work and I got my head down to study. The February after I had finished my degree we decided to have a holiday. John wanted to take me South Africa so that I could see his home country. We flew to Cape Town for two weeks and stayed in a really posh hotel. On John’s birthday, 28th February, we planned to go up Table Mountain. It was a clear hot day and we could see for miles. When we reached the top I just wanted to stand and look, but John appeared really agitated and wanted to keep walking. Every time other people came near he would march me on. Eventually
we came to a beautiful spot overlooking Camps Bay and sat on the rock to look down at the coast line. John got down on one knee and in his fingers was a stunning emerald cut diamond ring. He said, "Will you marry me?" and I started to cry. I said yes and flung my arms around his neck. He had borrowed one of my rings without me noticing, taken it to London and bought the ring before we left, then carried it in a money bag round his waist since we arrived!! I was not expecting it at all and when we got back to the hotel we called all our family in England. That night we celebrated by having a lovely romantic meal and the hotel opened a bottle of champagne free of charge.
It certainly was well thought out by John and the most romantic place to be engaged. We get married on July 6th 2002 and we can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together.
