Our love story

Chapter 1

I always knew I would marry my first boyfriend. Don’t ask me how I knew this, it may have been divine revelation or maybe the fact that during my teenage years I never once had a boyfriend. My brother got married when I was 17 and it was then that I decided that I wanted to get married. I had finished high school and had no job prospects and I wasn’t studying so I figured the next best thing to do was get married, right? Yeah, thankfully that didn’t happen. The next 2 years were fairly boring. I lived at home and had a couple of short term jobs and I had absolutely no love life. The only person near my age at church was my sister-in-laws brother. We lived in Wondai so the closest other Ward was at least 1.5 hours away and I hardly went to any activities because of my lack of friends so that ruled out church members and I had no contact with non members so that wasn’t even as option. Life sucked for someone who only wanted to be grown up and married. I was looking for an escape. In April 1998 my sister Christina got married. She was living in Canberra at the time and soon enough she was pregnant with their first baby. They invited me to live with them so that I could be their nanny while she went back to work after the baby was born. I moved down to Canberra in March 1999. I looked for work half-heartedly while waiting for the baby to be born. He was born in June and by December my sister still hadn’t gone back to work. Now I had to find a real job. I finally found one in September 2000. I had very limited skills so it took a while to find a job. I worked at BreastScreen Australia as a trainee and learned all things to do with administration and I did ‘school’ one day a week.
I was 20 at this stage and still single. There were not a lot of prospects at church. My sister and Brother-in-law tried to set me up with the Stake Presidents son but it never went anywhere because I don’t think he was my type at all. We never went out or anything. I just met him in the hall at church and that was it. He came over for dinner once but that was after he’d gotten married.
Unfortunately I hated it my job. When I had been there a year I was offered a full time job but after fasting and prayer I turned it down. I had no other job to go to and my contract expired so I left. I got a payout, just enough to live on while I looked for another job. I paid my rent, my tithing and went up north to visit my parents. I stayed there for about a month to figure out what I was going to do. I felt very sure that I had done the right thing and I would be ok. My mum was worried that I didn’t have a job and insisted I needed to apply for unemployment benefit. I refused. Been there, done that and I never wanted to do it again.

I went back ‘home’ to Canberra and started looking for a job. For 2 months I looked and applied everywhere I could. I went to interviews but was never successful. I was running out of money. Eventually I had $2 in the bank and I couldn’t even afford to catch the bus. One day my sister was reading the paper and found a job ad which had been placed in the Public Notices instead of the Employment section. I had missed it since I never read the Public Notices. It was for a receptionist at a Doctors Surgery. I rang them up and an interview time was set up. I walked down town to my interview (remember I had NO money to even catch the bus). I really sucked at interviews and I probably wasn’t any good at this one either but they asked me back for a second interview with a view to starting! I went back the next day and met the Doctors and that was it. I had a job!!! It was truly inspired. It was the best job I ever had. I loved it!

Chapter 2

I had a great time in the YSA program and there was a guy I liked but he didn't like me back that I knew of. He eventually left for his mission and so out of sight, out of mind. I did have a Latino guy who used to ‘stalk’ me every morning on my way to the bus stop though. I would walk down the road and he would be coming from the newsagency with his paper. Every day, without fail. He would stop me and we’d chat and he would tell me about himself and how beautiful I was. If he wasn’t about 40 and slightly creepy it might have been ok. One day I thought I’d avoided him. It was Saturday and I made it down to the bus stop without seeing him. PHEW! Next thing I know, there he is, walking along the footpath. He must have been out for a morning walk or something. Of course he came and talked to me. He invited me to the movies on Sunday. I turned him down. He told me how beautiful I was as usual. I still turned him down.

In about March 2002 I was still living with my sister, her husband and her two boys. One day my brother-in-law Jared came home with a computer. We didn’t have one up until then. A friend from church gave it to him. We were so excited! We got the internet!
Jared decided that it would be a good thing to find an LDS chat room. So he asked one of the single guys in the ward and we got onto LDSChat.com. It was fun chatting to people and it was cool to find other Australians on there and to talk to people from overseas. Of course it can all be rather silly and flirty with people trying to pick up. One guy got very upset with me because I told him I don’t watch TV on Sunday. Apparently that was the clincher in our ‘relationship’. One night I met a guy called Sam. He was from Ipswich, QLD and was fun to talk to. He asked for my phone number and I gave it to him. I’ve never done that before, ever! He called and we chatted for hours. And it was like that for a few weeks. We would talk into the wee hours of the morning. We’d also chat on LDSChat. I figured he liked me, right, and so we talked about meeting in person. Around that same time I met another guy called Graham - Aussieyobbo. He was so funny. He was from Dalby and we actually knew some of the same people. I was infatuated with Sam so Graham was just someone fun to talk to. I didn’t have any thoughts about him beyond the chatroom. April 25th I called Sam and we chatted. He seemed weird, not really himself. He got cranky with me about something. Then he accused me of avoiding him. After that conversation he was never available to talk to me or he was tired so couldn’t talk long. I moved house because my sister and her family moved back to Queensland. I moved in with a friend and I could only seem to catch Sam very occasionally online. I still kept up my friendship with Graham and a couple of other guys and girls. My mum called me one day and said she’d been talking with a church member and her daughter (who I knew from YWs) had been married to this horrible guy. He was possessive and every other bad thing you can think of. His name was Graham Fountain. I told mum that I didn’t care. Graham was just a friend, some guy to chat too. It wasn’t like I was going to marry him. Sheesh.

Chapter 3

In July 2002 I moved into my own place. It was so exciting to have my own flat and do my own thing. I was still working at the Drs and loving it. I gave Sam my phone number but he never called. He ‘lost’ my number. I gave it to him again. He still never called. I managed to catch him online and he finally, after me asking him, told me that there was someone else. I heard a few months later that he was engaged to someone from America that he’d met online. He’d proposed online too. Loser. He’d ‘met’ her back in April I believe. So being the stupid girl I was I cried all night. But strangely the only person I wanted to talk to about it was Graham. It took all of 2 days to get over Sam. And then something happened. Graham was suddenly THERE. The person I wanted to talk too late into the night. The person who would flirt with me and laugh with me. This was all conducted online. It was September before I gave him my phone number. He called me and we spoke for a little while and then he didn’t call back for a few days. He once told me that he waited 72 hours before calling again because that’s all part of the plan. I think it’s on Seinfeld or something. You might wonder about what I thought of all that bad stuff I heard about him. Well, I told him what I’d heard. I told him that I knew his ex-wife and I had him checked out. We both met a girl called Charly online. We had mutual friends and so I trusted her. She agreed to meet Graham for me at some dances and check him out. They met and she reported back to me that he wasn’t an axe murderer. I was happy and I felt ok about him. I knew the bad things I’d heard weren’t true.
Once we started calling each other we started seriously talking about meeting. I knew I wanted to meet him. I daydreamed about it. He had only given me a very dodgy picture of himself so I wasn’t sure what he really looked like, so my daydreams were a little fuzzy.
The first weekend of October was a long weekend for Labour Day. I arranged to have a couple of extra days off work and to fly up to meet him. Our first date was going to be at a YSA Rollerskating Disco on the Saturday night. I was staying at my sister’s In-laws house and her mother- in-law picked me up from the airport. I was so excited but really nervous at the same time. My sister and I went shopping to find something to wear since I needed a disco shirt. I found a sparkly blue button up shirt to wear with my jeans and some platform boots. I straightened my hair and did my makeup. I called Charly and made sure she was ‘real’ and everything was arranged. She was going to come and pick me up with another of her friends (who I ended up recognising from the Stake I used to be in as a teenager). She picked me up and I was SO nervous. It was fun to meet Charly too. We drove to the Coldrock Icecreamery where we had agreed to meet and got ice creams and chatted while we waited for Graham to arrive.

Chapter 4.
We kept looking for his car. What time was it? Was he going to show up? Do I look ok? My hair was frizzing. Damn. A car just drove in. I think it’s him! Oh my gosh. Ok, should I get out of the car now? Or should I wait until he comes over? Ok I’ll get out now. Oh my gosh. I’m so nervous.
I’m waiting by the car when he walks over. He’s wearing jeans and a blue shirt. He’s tall with dark hair and a goatee. He’s got broad shoulders and…..a unibrow. Ok I can see past that. He smiles. His teeth are crooked. Ok I can live with that too. I think I smiled and I may have laughed nervously. We hug and it’s awkward. He asks if I want to go in his car, I say yes. I think he opened the door for me. He was a gentleman like that. Once I got in his car I felt so comfortable. Not awkward at all! I was still nervous. This was my first date but I felt fine with him. I knew he wasn’t a psycho that was going to kidnap and rape me.
We drove to the Roller rink and went inside. We had fun. I found out that I can’t skate very well and neither can Graham. He fell over once and once he rolled into me from behind. I don’t know if that was deliberate or not. We played air hockey and he beat me. There was a guy there that I knew and so I was able to say hello to him and I found out later that Graham was very jealous. Which was laughable considering my love life up until then. The Dance finished without any drama. I didn’t really know how to act around a date. It was weird for me. I might have seemed a little standoffish but I didn’t mean to. I just didn’t know how to act or what to say or what to do. I’ve never been great at conversation and talking to someone I liked was even worse! After the activity finished we went outside with Charly and her friend. Graham offered to take me home. Charly was looking out for me and made sure that was ok with me. It was. I trusted the way I felt. He wasn’t going to take advantage of me.
We drove to a popular lookout called Mt Coot-tha. I think it’s a typically make out place but we didn’t go to make out. Well, I didn’t anyway. There are amazing views of the city. It was after midnight but there were a few people up there. They got a little rowdy so we decided to leave. At that time the Temple was under construction so Graham took me to see it. It was all lit up and was just beautiful. We then went down the cliffs and walked along the river. It was so nice. I was nervous. I really liked him and didn’t want to seem dumb and I had no idea of how to flirt or keep his attention. He dropped me back at 3am.

Chapter 5.

Graham had Mondays off so we arranged to go on a second date on Monday. We were going to Springbook National Park and go hiking. He came and picked me up and met my sister. He was also clean shaven. He looked different. Not in a bad way, just different. Monday was good. We drove up and just talked. We stopped along the way to take photos. Graham tried to get a photo of me but I managed to get out of it. I was very self conscious about how I looked. I had a pimple on my chin that was annoying me. I wish I was just looking my absolute best but I wasn’t. I wish now that we had of got a photo taken together.
Springbrook is a beautiful place. There are walking trails that go to waterfalls and lots of really cool lookouts. We walked down to the big waterfall. It was so beautiful and also secluded. There are never many people around. We’ve been there many times since and it’s always the same. Nice and peaceful, quiet and secluded. During the many talks we had prior to meeting I’d told him that he had to ask me first if he wanted to kiss me. So, he respected my wishes and asked me. I think his exact words might have been ‘So you know what we talked about…’ it was OBVIOUS that he was talking about. I thought about it. I ummmed and ahhhhhed about it. I really didn’t know if I wanted to kiss him. Honestly I was scared! I had never kissed anyone before. He knew that. I left him waiting for at LEAST 10 minutes, it might have been double that. He thought my reluctance was because I didn’t like him. He thought it was all over. But I was actually weighing up the pros and cons in my mind. Did I want my first kiss to be with him? I did like him. I liked him a lot. But I was SO nervous about having my first kiss.

Chapter 6.

I finally said ok. I turned around and…well, I would love to say that it was wonderful but it wasn’t really. It was a little on the wet and sloppy side. I wasn’t that impressed to tell you the truth. Then he took me under the waterfall and kissed me again. That was a bit better. Maybe it wasn’t wonderful at first because I had no idea what it felt like to be kissed. It was then that he told me he loved me. Really? I think that was my exact response. This is our second date and he’s telling me he loves me. Wow. We kissed some more and cuddled and decided it was time to go since it was getting dark. I took his hand and we walked back to the car. The first time I’d held anyone’s hand. My first kiss, my first ‘I love you’ and my first hand holding experience all in one day. At the age of 23 years and 11 months it was worth the wait. Next we went to find the glow worms in the glow worm cave and did some more kissing. Well it was dark so why waste it! After that we drove to the Gold Coast and had Subway on the beach for dinner. It was 3am again before he left. I don’t know how long we spent in the car kissing but I didn’t care. I think I officially had a boyfriend and I had years to make up.

Chapter 7

I went back to Canberra on the Wednesday. Long distance relationships are hard and I missed him but it was comforting to know that we were ‘going out’. He was 30 for heaven’s sake. Do 30 year olds ‘go out’? I didn’t know and didn’t care because we were officially together. Whenever my brother used to call me the first thing he’d say to me was “you got a boyfriend?” the answer had always been no. Up until now. How weird! Me. A boyfriend? Someone liked me? As soon as I got home I had to tell my best friend and there was much excitement and squealing. I am such a girl sometimes!
We spoke on the phone or online all the time. He would sing me songs over the phone and organised to come and see me in November. Those few weeks were torture. There was a brief moment of ‘have I done the right thing?’ when the guy I used to like came home from his mission. But one look at him and I knew I did not like him. Everything that appealed to me about him before was just not right anymore.
I counted down to Graham’s visit. I arranged a place for him to stay with one of the YSA that lived alone. It was hard to find people who didn’t live with their parents! It seemed like he was much more grown up then the rest of us. He had a chequebook AND a PO Box. That made him officially an adult where the rest of us were still growing up. When I first saw his signature it was exactly how I knew it would be. A grown up one not like mine. Mine was a -‘I’m still trying to figure out who I am’ signature.
He was supposed to arrive after I had gotten home from work. It was a half hour walk to and from work for me and I was almost home when I saw his car. He saw me and he pulled up. I got in and directed him to my house. I felt bad because I was going to clean my flat but didn’t expect him so early! I’m sure he didn’t even notice. When I got to see his townhouse for the first time it was a pig sty so obviously cleanliness was not something he was concern about.

Chapter 8

I still had to work so Graham amused himself by playing tourist during the day and spending time with me at night. If the truth be told he practically lived at my place for those 10 days. Please don’t tell my mother! It was fun! We were actually able to date like normal people. We went to the movies, ate dinner out, drove down south to find snow and took long walks.
We didn’t talk about marriage then. Graham was thinking of moving down. I was a little unsure about that. I liked him. I wanted to be with him but suddenly it became a little overwhelming for me and I felt like there were things I didn’t know about him. Once that was sorted out I felt better about everything. One night I think I must have been getting down on myself. I have low self esteem and it must have been bad that night. Graham took me into the bathroom and made me look at myself. And told me that was the person he loved and other stuff I can’t even remember. I sat on his lap and cried. I learned later that he was going to propose to me right then but decided it was too soon.
All too quickly his time with me was up. He drove me to work and then drove the 15 hours home. I was fine all day until I got home and he wasn’t there. I missed him so much. It was only after he was gone that I told him that I loved him. I should have done it while he was there with me but I guess it didn’t really hit me until he was gone.
Of course I was planning to go up to my parents for Christmas and visit Graham as well. After his November visit we started talking marriage. He mentioned that he thought we’d get married but didn’t want to rush. He’d been there and done that and it hadn’t worked out. I hinted about a special Christmas present he should get me. He most definitely was not going to propose to me on the phone.

Chapter 9

I arrived at my parent’s house on Christmas Eve 2002. It was a stormy night and was raining so hard. Graham was also coming up to meet my family so my brother-in-law drove me into town to McDonalds where we were meeting Graham and he was going to follow us then out to the farm. This weekend was the meet the parents’ weekend for both of us. I think my parents liked him. I hoped they did, I especially valued my Dad’s opinion. They didn’t say anything about him though, even when he was gone. Christmas morning was uneventful. We planned on going to his parents for Christmas lunch and staying overnight there and then coming back to my parent’s place for Boxing Day. Between there and Dalby, where his family live, there is a mountain range called the Bunya Mountains. It’s beautiful and it has lots of walking tracks and waterfalls. We stopped there on the way out. Since it had been raining it was very muddy. The tracks were slippery so we only made it down to the first bridge. We stood there and cuddled, watching the creek trickle under the bridge. This is where my memory gets a bit fuzzy. You’d think that since this was one of the most important parts of my life that I would remember it forever. I wish I could remember every detail but I don’t. Graham said to me something in the vicinity of ‘So, you know I want to marry you’ I said ‘yes’ and that was it. We were engaged.
We didn’t plan on announcing our engagement right away. I told him he needed to ask my dad for permission first. I met his family and that was all good. They didn’t seem weird or anything although I was intimidated by how smart they all are. Still am. His parents thought I was very young. Way too young for Graham. They thought I was 18. Nope. I was 24. And he was 30. They were fine with our relationship then.
Boxing Day we drove back to my parent’s place. We had a big feed of prawns and all sorts of yummy stuff. Christmas with my family is always good! My sister and her family left but only got as far as the hospital. She couldn’t stop throwing up. Oh no. One by one we came down with some sort of stomach bug. Graham went home because he had to work the next day. He didn’t get as sick as everyone else but what a nice welcome to the family!

Chapter 10

Eventually we all recovered from our stomach flu thing, food poisoning or whatever it was. I stayed with my parents the week between Christmas and New Years and Graham planned to pick me up for New Years and take me back to Toowoomba so I could see where he lived and spend more time together. We still hadn’t announced our engagement because he still had to talk to my dad.
The time came. We sat inside while my parents were relaxing on the porch. We were psyching ourselves up. Graham was nervous. My dad had a gun after all. My parents had desperately wanted to marry me off for years. At the age of 24, in the church I was practically on the shelf. But they wouldn’t give me up for just anyone. I don’t think. We finally got our courage and went outside.
Again my memory fails me. The exact words that Graham said I can’t remember. I can’t even remember what my Dad said in return, other then the results was positive. I do remember I cried and told my dad I wouldn’t marry Graham if he said no. I trusted my dad’s opinion that much. But thankfully it was all ok. My mum then took me inside to give me something - a box of baby clothes she’s knitted for me. I kid you not! She’s been knitting and storing this stuff since who knows when. I told you my parents wanted me married off. I still have those clothes. Most of it’s girly so I haven’t had any chance to use it.
We then drove to Graham’s parents’ house for their New Years gathering and announced our engagement. Everyone seemed happy but I have no idea what they really thought…other then his parents thinking I was too young!
Next we drove to Toowoomba because I still didn’t have a ring!

Chapter 11

Graham was generous enough to give me a rather large budget for a ring. I however had no intention of spending tonnes of money on a ring. I am not that sort of girl. Apparently that was proof to him that he had chosen the right person this time. I chose a simple diamond cluster with a white gold band and it was about $400 and even then I was sure I’d spent too much. It was perfect for me though! To this day – 7 years later I still love it. We spent the time watching old movies together or just hanging out and making out. It was over all too soon though. I had to go home.
Back to reality I went. We had a tearful departure and I flew home to Canberra. We planned on seeing each other again at Easter. We also had a wedding to plan! Initially we planned on waiting for the Brisbane Temple to open. It was due to open in June but got put off to July. Brisbane made sense since I was the only person in our families that didn’t live in Queensland. But not having a date to tell everyone was bugging me. The Spirit was also bugging me and telling me not to wait. Against almost everyone else’s wishes we picked our wedding date for the 26th of April 2003 in the Sydney Temple, just 4 months after getting engaged.
Planning a wedding can be frustrating but planning a wedding long distance is even more frustrating. Plus add Satan into the mix and it’s a recipe for disaster.

Chapter 12

So the wedding eventually got planned. I called the Temple and booked us in. I made my own dress because I didn’t have much money and I needed something modest. I bought the materials a bit at a time and borrowed my friends sewing machine and managed to make something pretty. My best friend helped me and no matter what she says, I swear I did not turn into Bridezilla. I bought the paper for the invitations, mailed them to Graham, he printed them and mailed them back to me to make up and send out. We decided to have a picnic on the temple grounds after the wedding and then another reception at the Historic Rose Gardens in Toowoomba on the 10th of May. Graham sold his house for an insanely small amount and was able to pay off some debt and buy his suit. I trusted he’d find something nice without my input and he did. Some things went well and we had no problems, some things did not. Graham and I had a few arguments and almost broke it off a couple of times. Then came the hardest test of all.

Chapter 13

To get married you have to have the ‘blue’ form. Which, interestingly enough, is not blue. Graham and I had to both fill one out and send it to the person performing the marriage, in this case the Temple, with our identification and Graham’s divorce decree. Those documents have to be submitted 32 days BEFORE the marriage date. No quicky weddings here. We got the form filled out and witnessed. Thankfully I worked with Doctors so that was easy for me. Not so easy for Graham since he worked so much. He got his witnessed at the Police Station on his lunch break. Our papers were then sent in together. It should have taken 2 days at the most for the Temple to receive our documents. We were going along our merry way planning our wedding. I had just sent out the invitations and we had about 1 week before the 32 day deadline. Graham got a call from the Temple. They did not have our documents.
We went into freak-out mode. I could not believe it. Where were they?? They should have been there ages ago. Like 2 weeks ago. The Post Office was checked. It wasn’t there. Crap. If we didn’t get it in by the deadline then there wasn’t going to be a wedding on the 26th. And I’d just sent out the invitations!!

Chapter 14

So we did the only thing we could do – we prayed and started all over again. We were able to print the ‘blue’ form off the internet (thank you modern technology!) and the Temple was also sending one to us. We had to get them witnessed all over again. Now came the hard part. Graham had to get another copy of his divorce decree and since I was not born in Australia I had to order a copy of my birth certificate from New Zealand. You know how long that takes? It was going to take about 5 days. With weekends in there we wouldn’t have enough time. Graham rang the temple and asked them to make an exception. Apparently if we got our forms in on time then it was ok for the ID to be later then the deadline. Phew!
The deadline was Wednesday. We got the documents sent away on Friday afternoon. No post on the weekends so it was due to get there on Tuesday at the latest. Tuesday came and still bad news. No documents. We’d sent them in an overnight post bag and they weren’t there. Graham convinced the Temple people to backdate the forms since we had made every possible effort to get them there on time.
On Wednesday Graham got a call. The documents had arrived! Not only the ones we’d just sent on Friday but the ORIGINAL ones! The ones that had been lost for almost three weeks. It really was a miracle and an answer to our prayers.

Chapter 15

The wedding approached and I was getting excited. Now that I knew I was actually getting married. I had told my work that I would be leaving and the girls there organised a bridal shower dinner. I also had a bridal shower at the chapel. We got lots of good pressies. I finished my dress and counted down the days on my fridge. We had decided that I would move up to Toowoomba instead of Graham moving down to Canberra. It was his suggestion; he thought I should have my family close when we starting having babies. Yes, we’d spoke about having kids and decided to just let it happen whenever it happened instead of holding off like most people do. We had also picked names. I like Ethan for a boy and he wanted Falshaw for a middle name. I didn’t really like that name at first but it grew on me.
Graham had not been sealed to his parents. Nor had one of his brothers. It was organised that they would get sealed before we got married and sealed. His sister and brother-in-law were flying down for the wedding too, my parents could come and so could my sister and her family. My brother had to work so he couldn’t come. That was the extent of our temple recommend holding family members. I had invited my best friends’ mum (my best friend wasn’t endowed as yet but would be waiting outside to take our photos) and the missionary couple from the USA that had been like my second parents for the last several months.
Two days before the wedding I finished up at work. I don’t think the patients knew I was leaving and I don’t even think some of the Doctors knew I was leaving either. For some reason I didn’t advertise it a whole lot. The next day I drove up to Sydney (a 3 hours drive) with my best friend and her mum and met my parents at the Temple accommodation. We all booked in and then I just had to wait for Graham to arrive. I hadn’t seen him for four months. Those were four very long months. We had spoken everyday but it just wasn’t the same. He called me to say he was almost there so I went to stand out on the road so he would see me and know where the motel was since he’d never been there before. Those few minutes were torture. I just wanted to see him and hug him and kiss him. He arrived and we did just that.

Chapter 16

My sister with her husband and boys, Graham’s parents and his brother and wife arrived that night. We went up to my Aunty and Uncle’s house for dinner. They live right near the temple but aren’t church members. They helped my mum bring the food up after the wedding. I thought that was really nice of them since they aren’t religious and actually protested against the building of the Temple.
I was nervous and my back was sore. My dad gave me a massage and I didn’t end up going to bed until 11pm. We had to be at the Temple by about 8am!

Chapter 17

We were running late. Not too late thank goodness. We were up early to do hair and makeup. I did my makeup and my sister did my hair. We met Graham at the Temple. We had the interview with the Temple President at 8.30 and were booked into the 9am Endowment session. But they were running late. I’m not sure if it was because of us or not. We received our endowments and I was rushed to the Bridal Room and then out to the sealing room. We hardly had any time to spend together in the Celestial room and I really regret that. Graham’s sister had not arrived yet. We waited for as long as possible but eventually we just had to start. For some reason they decided to marry us first instead of doing the family sealing like they were supposed to do. So his sister missed out on the marriage but arrived just in time to see Graham and Colin be sealed to their parents. Our dads were our witnesses and we knelt on the Alter, held hands and were married and sealed for time and all eternity. I can’t remember what was said and it was shorter then I expected but it was wonderful just the same. I will always be thankful that I got to get married before my dad passed away.
We came out of the temple and I’m sure I was beaming. My best friend was there to take our photos. I didn’t get around to having a bouquet so someone picked me a yellow rose from the temple gardens. We had a picnic of sandwiches and fruit on the lawn and drank grape juice. After that we went back to the motel to change clothes and then we drove down to my place. Kiki and I had decorated my place into “Athena and Desponia’s Hotel De Love”. Graham and I couldn’t afford a real honeymoon so my place would have to do. We arrived towing a trailer for my furniture and when Graham went to unhook it he hurt his hand. Instead of my surprising him with what I’d done to my flat, it was a case of - quick get inside to stop the bleeding! After we’d attended to his hand I made him go back outside. I turned on the fairy lights in the bedroom and in the bathroom (I had a spa) and made sure it looked magical and then he got to carry me over the threshold.
We stayed at my place for a week while we packed and readied me to move. Once we got to Toowoomba we went camping for 3 days. It was pretty much all we could afford and that was fine. I love camping and was all for it! And you know he’s a keeper when you haven’t showered for 3 days and he still loves you.
On the 10th of May we had a second reception for our non member family and those that couldn’t attend the wedding. It was another picnic at the Historic Rose Gardens.
5 weeks after our wedding I was pregnant with Ethan Falshaw. He was born on the 17th of February 2004. 2 months before our first anniversary.
Nicholas Patrick was born on the 12th of October 2006 and Lachlan Wentworth followed on the 30th of April 2009.
This year we have been married for 7 years. And we plan on spending our anniversary at the Bunyas with our boys. Maybe Graham will be able to kneel down this time and tell me that he loves me.

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