Sunday, July 21, 2013

40 for 40 - Liz Fenwick


There have been a  lot of my guest posters that I met at the RNA conference - not surprising really.  As anyone who has attended any of the RNA Conferences, will tell you, this association is a\ warm and friendly group who welcome newcomers into their midst without hesitation.  So RNA  conference was where I first met  Liz  Fenwick.

And it's at the RNA that I have a chance to keep up to date with her. Not an easy matter because so much of the time Liz is in Dubai where she lives.  If she's not in  Cornwall, that is. And Cornwall is the setting for her two books.  That sounds like a  glamorous life  doesn't it?  Like Liz herself . 

Liz's post is on the blog today  for a very special reason - as you'll see from her first sentence.   So


Happy Anniversary Liz!  Thank you for sharing it with me - and all my readers.

(Oh and Liz - Can I enter your giveaway contest?  I could tell you about the day the Babe Magnet   looked at a Welsh craft ring he’d bought for me and pushed it on to my engagement finger saying ‘Well I suppose this will have to do till I can get you a better one’! Cue stunned silence and then I said ‘was that a proposal’ and he said of course it was!  40+ years later   . . .)

Here's Liz -
On July  21st, I will be married twenty-two years.  Not a patch on Kate and the Babe Magnet but beginning to be serious! 

I can’t think of those twenty-two years without remembering about my husband’s wonderful proposal. It was the August Bank holiday weekend and miraculously the sun was shining. We were staying with his parents in Cornwall in their wonderful house set above the Helford River. I don’t remember where the rest of the family were but Chris and I went for a walk along Frenchman’s Creek.

It’s a circular walk and as we began we met some acquaintances coming the other way. About half way around we sat on a bench and admired the view over the river and looking out to Groyne Point.  I sat there swinging my feet (yes they didn’t touch the ground) and leaning against Chris and said, ‘I guess you’ll never make an honest woman of me.’
Chris turned to me and said, ‘Will you marry me?’
Being the romantic I am I replied, ‘Are you serious this time?’ (He’d asked twice before but that’s another story altogether!)
‘Yes.’ He looked at me and then the view.
‘Then yes.’  My heart flipped for I’d believed he wasn’t ready to get married!
He kissed me and the rest of the walk is a blur of happiness . We must have looked like grinning idiots when we met the acquaintances again. Of course we couldn’t tell them our news, family needed to be told first, but it was so difficult as both of us were bursting with excitement.

I will give a copy of my latest book A Cornish Affair (which is a bit autobiographical about an American running away and falling in love with Cornwall) to the best proposal story left in the comments….


Liz's latest book A Cornish Affair is out now…
Running out on your wedding day never goes down well. When the pressure of her forthcoming marriage becomes too much, Jude bolts from the church, leaving a good man at the altar, her mother in a fury, and the guests with enough gossip to last a year.

Guilty and ashamed, Jude flees to Pengarrock, a crumbling cliff-top mansion in Cornwall, where she takes a job cataloguing the Trevillion family's extensive library. The house is a welcome escape for Jude, full of history and secrets, but when its new owner arrives, it's clear that Pengarrock is not beloved by everyone.

As Jude falls under the spell of the house, she learns of a family riddle stemming from a terrible tragedy centuries before, hinting at a lost treasure. And when Pengarrock is put up for sale, it seems that time is running out for the house and for Jude.


You can find out more about Liz here.

17 comments:

John Jackson said...

Hah!!!

I was a Second Officer in the Merchant Navy, working on the Royal Navy supply ships, out of the (now closed) Navy base at Chatham in Kent.

On a ship with about 17 officers, mostly unmarried, and in port regularly, what do you do??? Have a party!! My immediate junior, Chris the Third Officer, for once made use of his brain and set about procuring a number of suitable females. The traditional source for ship's parties are the local hospitals,, so Chris consults the Yellow Pages and called the first hospital shown there – All Saint's Hospital, the Maternity Hospital in Chatham (also, sadly, now closed).

You must remember, this was very much an accepted way of doing things in those far off and more innocent days.

At the appointed hour two taxis loaded with various female staff members arrived alongside the ship and were welcomed on board. I noticed an attractive blond girl, and struck up a conversation. Time passed and we kept chatting and went outside for a walk round the deck, stopping off for a roast beef sandwich in the galley as we went.

At midnight, all the young ladies disappeared down the gangway into two more waiting taxis; in a Cinderella-reversal, guests had to be out of the dockyard by midnight.

The next day, I just knew!!

Six weeks later, in her room at the hospital, I asked her to jump off a cliff and marry me, before disappearing off to Gibraltar on the ship the next day.

Fortunately she said yes, and 38 years later, here we still are.

Unknown said...

Just Another Bloke what a beautiful story...I've got tears in my eyes! You tow and Kate are an inspiration.

lx

Morton S Gray said...

My hubbie proposed by text message from Sweden to UK. He sent me the marriage vows one by one. I thought he was joking to begin with and when he texted "all my worldly goods I thee endow", I asked if I could use his digital camera! We've been married ten and a half years now.

Unknown said...

Love it Morton! Could you use his camera???
lx

Morton S Gray said...

If I remember he bought me my own along with the big diamond ring!

angela britnell said...

I was a Leading Wren in the Royal Navy and met my future husband (a US Naval Flight Officer) at a NATO HQ in Denmark. We'd only been dating about 2 months and we'd been weeding the garden at his rental house when we came in hot and sweating. Resting on the sofa he suddenly proposed and I said yes in a state of shock! We've been married 30 years and have 3 wonderful sons. PS. I'm from Cornwall originally and return several times a year to visit family and get my pasty fix!

traveler said...

When I met my beshert I knew that he was the one and only. We were the same age and had a great deal in common. In those days meeting someone was lovely and special since friends had parties at their homes, others fixed you up and the mating ritual was fun, interesting and always unforgettable. When we were going out I lived at home, as did he and my birthday was coming up. I was very young and naive. He asked me to a concert which was extraordinary, a performance by Paul Anka which I loved. At the concert he had the spotlight shone on us which was a total shock and presented me with my engagement ring. We have been together for 43 years.

petite said...

High school sweethearts who met during a drama rehearsal and continue to live the dream - A Midsummer Night's Dream. I was smitten from day one by this young man's charm and charisma as well as his genuine sincerity. Being young and in love for the first time I was overboard and determined. When he proposed to me at the scene and setting of the play, leading into the backstage were petals, music playing that was romantic, emotional and songs that had my name and were famous. A table set for two with lovely treats and in the middle of the table a sweet bouquet and on bended knee with the ring a wonderful question which I was thrilled with. We have been married for 6 years and I would follow him forevermore.

Unknown said...

Angela - I love the fact you weeding his garden! Brilliant. Well done on 30 years!

traveler - Paul Anka concert...wow. memories there. i am impression he organised that but morei mpressed at the 43 years!

petite - I'm not sure I've heard of a more delightful set for a proposal...you are a lucky woman!

lx

Unknown said...

There were no vacancies at the hotel. on Daytona Beach. I went into the restaurant and ordered a steak, salad, and baked potato, and then pushed it away when it arrived, too exhausted from the long drive from TN to eat, dreading the phone calls I needed to make to find a room.

Tall, dark, and handsome sort of materialized at my table, set a martini in front of me, and rumbled down at me, "You look as if you could use this." And then he sat down across from me and proceded to eat my steak, salad, and baked potato.

I don't even like martinis. But he had the deepest voice I'd ever heard (think Barry White) and the greenest eyes I'd ever seen. I was mesmerized - and hey, I was in a public place, there was no danger.

I sipped the martini, he ordered a special omelette for me, claiming that was just what I needed (he was right), and then he beckoned a woman over to our table who turned out to be an old friend of his, and the manager of the hotel. Next thing I knew I had the keys to the courtesy room in my hands.

Nine months later we were grilling steaks at my home in FL and Himself was recounting the events of that night to my 10-yr old daughter. "I fell in love with your mother at first sight," he rumbled down at her, "and then a few weeks later with you."

My daughter looked up at him with her own set of green eyes and said, "So, are you going to marry us, or not?"

The year was 1984 and he's still in love with us, we're still in love with him. :))

Unknown said...

J L Fishler...well did he???

lx

Mary Preston said...

The Mister never actually proposed. We went out for three years and just kind of drifted into marriage.

Unknown said...

He did. :))

And thanks for waving your book as enticement, it was fun remembering.

Unknown said...

Mary...I have this vision of the two of you in a small boat on a lazy river going under a bridge that says marriage!

JL :-)

lx

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Your husband's proposal sounds very romantic, Liz, and in perfect surroundings. Happy belated anniversary.

Unknown said...

Thanks Debs!
lx

Unknown said...

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