The story of how my parents met is one of those tales that happen so rarely. The year was 1969, my Mom was on an epic voyage around the world, traveling sometimes by air and mostly by freighter…which was a cheaper way to travel back then. On a stop in Lesotho, she was introduced to my Dad who was a South African cricketer. As the story goes, it was love at first sight…my Dad walking into a restaurant and stopping in his tracks when he saw my Mom’s over-the-shoulder glance and smile. They spent about 10 days together, traveling from Lesotho to Durban, to Cape Town and back again, and then my Mom was off on the rest of her journey.
The way it worked back then was that if you wanted to reach someone traveling by boat, you would send a letter to the next port-of-call and passengers would pick up mail when the ship came in to port. They exchanged a few letters this way, and in one letter, my Dad suggested that they travel around Europe together. Of course my Mom responded that she wouldn’t travel with someone unless she were married, so in the next letter, my Dad proposed. It was a bit funny because my Mom never got that letter, and her next letter to my Dad made no mention of his proposal. But eventually they figured it out and my Mom accepted. The rest is history. My Dad emigrated from South Africa to the US, they were married in my Mom’s native Connecticut and then they headed to Arizona where my Mom was living at the time. That was 40 years ago today. Here’s the story on Tripline:
It’s missing some detail since my parents just moved (from my hometown outside of Boston back to Connecticut) and they don’t have internet access in the new house yet, but my Mom said she’d add more details from her archived letters and diary soon. I love this story.
Congratulations Mom & Dad, and thanks for everything.
-Byron