During the period that Karl was in my daily life, I lived in a fairy-tale world and no longer waited by the phone for Wayne’s long distance phone calls. In fact, I avoided answering phone calls at night, afraid that it could be him and nervous that I would sound “distant”. After Karl’s departure, I resigned myself to being a lonely single mum again, this time nursing a wounded heart…
Fate plays strange games indeed, as my silence was the turning point in the relationship between Wayne and me. I guess Wayne had become complacent and presumed that I would always be there, just waiting patiently for him to take the next step. My silence had cast doubts in his mind that perhaps, he might lose me if he waited too long! On January 25th, 1985, I was startled out of slumber by the ringing of my bed-side phone – it was Jillanne, who decided that I, too, should be rudely awakened (as she was) at 4 a.m. by a phone call from her brother in Hong Kong. Concerned that his phone calls to me had gone unanswered for some weeks and befuddled after imbibing a few beers too many, Wayne didn’t factor in the time difference before making the “worried” phone call to his sister. After promising to respond to his future calls, I tried to go back to sleep. A few minutes later, at 4.20 a.m. my phone rang for the second time – this time the voice belonged to a somewhat inebriated Wayne who immediately began the conversation by telling me that he would be returning to Australia for good when his contract with Air Niugini finishes in a couple of weeks. He continued by asking my help in looking for a house to buy – to be specific, a four-bedroom home for us and my three kids! “You mean you’d like us to shack up?” I asked bluntly. “No,” he hastily denied, “will you marry me?” For once, I was speechless! After finding my tongue again, I told him that I couldn’t answer immediately and that I needed time to think. He sounded rather disappointed on hearing that… After the call ended, I spent many, many hours looking deep into my heart and mind and realized without a doubt that I truly do love him. At 7.30p.m. on January 27th, I made a phone-call to him in Port Moresby and said, “If your proposal is still good, I accept…” As soon as I hung up the phone, Deej came out of his bedroom, gave me a huge hug and said, “You’ve made the right choice, mum!” and we both cried tears of happiness.
Excitement reached fever pitch when Wayne finally returned to Australia to live in the house he co-owned with his mum in Geebung. First on his “to do” list was to buy me an engagement ring. As Rick happened to be in town, I was “kids-free” so off we went to the city where I finally made my choice at a jewellery store called “The Diamond Mine” in Albert St. When we got back to the Geebung house, he changed into a pair of Stubbies shorts (was the Aussie comfy shorts for guys at the time) and a T-shirt before getting down on a bended knee on the front steps and nervously made a formal proposal of marriage. No romantic candlelit dinner date setting for the proposal for this down-to-earth man but a sincere straight from the heart promise of love…
It was during the house-hunting period that I found out he is not one who makes quick decisions but instead spends a lot of time deliberating, so I knew he had put a lot of thought before finally asking me to be his wife! Being more spontaneous in nature, I tend to mostly act on my instinct but I successfully curbed my impatience as we went all over Bribie Island checking out one house after another, after another, until a mutual decision was made several weeks into the “hunt” – a lovely 4 bedroom double storey house a stone’s throw from Pumicestone Passage. After the shortened cash settlement period of 30 days, all our combined worldly possessions were moved into our ‘new’ home.
We enrolled the girls into Bribie Island State School and Deej into Caboolture State High School at the end of the first term to start school in the second term in mid-April. Next on our agenda involved the family going heads down, bums up, tidying up the back and front yards and it wasn’t long before our joint effort resulted in transforming the property into our upcoming marital home.
On the first morning of the second school term, I packed the kids’ school lunches and watched them as they boarded the school bus just across the road from our house, telling them I’ll be at the school before the bell goes to sort out their education requirements – books, etc. Wayne & I got changed, jumped into his Jag and drove to Bribie State School only to find to my utter dismay that neither girl was present. The school principal made a public announcement during assembly asking if anyone had seen 2 new girls in a different school uniform that morning with no positive sightings reported. Well, didn’t that trigger off my panic button! – I was convinced that Rick had “abducted” the kids! The principal then rang up the school bus company and found out that the Caboolture school bus driver had reported he was on his way back to Bribie Island with 2 Asian-looking schoolgirls on board. Unbeknownst to us, there were two different school buses – one for the local State School and the other for Caboolture State High School on the mainland. All three of my kids had boarded the High School bus!
We quickly settled into a comfortable family life with Wayne’s mum (Merle) and stepdad (Roy) living on the island and his sister, Jillanne & her hubby, John (who owned a mower shop on Bribie Island), residing in Caboolture. Whenever I made curry puffs, Deej would jump on his bike to deliver them to Mum & Roy and to John at his shop. Mum decided to enrol in a Knitwit (stretch fabric) Sewing Class in Kippa-Ring so I joined as well as she needed someone to do the driving. It was fun bonding with my future mother-in-law, the sweetest woman I’ve ever known.
The months went by with Wayne seeking employment in the Aviation industry while making the most of our laidback lifestyle, just fishing and generally enjoying life. Our wedding was never the subject of any discussion between us as I wasn’t too sure I wanted to get hitched so soon after my divorce. One fine day, Jillanne decided to casually broach on our wedding plans, if any… I responded with, “haven’t given it much thought, really,” and Wayne voiced his thought, “I just want to celebrate a last birthday as a bachelor (2nd July) so any time after that will be fine by me,”. From there, Jillanne took matters into her own hands…
First, it was off to shop for a wedding dress for me and a matron-of-honour outfit for herself. Found the perfect outfits in a boutique but the prices were a bit too steep for my tight budget. I quietly asked for a discount, adding that I’m rather emotional by nature and cry easily when rejected. It worked!!! She quickly got her fingers working on her calculator and came up with prices that prevented the tears. Next stop was to buy fabric and patterns for the flower-girls’ dresses which Mum Merle readily agreed to sew. Wayne was tasked with organizing his side of the business – suits for his best-man, Barry Chambers and Deej (the ring-boy), drinks for the wedding reception, his invitations for the guest list and lastly, the honeymoon.
The wedding venue was set to be at Jillanne’s & John’s beautiful sprawling home in Caboolture and after all the final arrangements were made & confirmed with the marriage celebrant, caterers, tables & chairs, hairstylist, flowers and my invites to complete the guest list were sorted, I was able to take a deep breath and relax a little. The photographer and venue decoration were our wedding gifts from Jillanne & John while Mum Merle & Roy took care of the wedding cake with Roy more than happy to give me away. Everything was organized and all that was left was for the winter weather to be kind on our big day – 5th July 1985. [Coincidentally, I recently came across my Decree Absolute dated 5th Jan 1985, exactly six months to the day!]
Shortly after the traditional bucks’ night & hens’ night for Wayne & me, it was time to celebrate Wayne’s 39th birthday with family & friends who were able to attend the satay party I had organized with free-flowing booze for an evening of merriment. By the end of the night of celebration, there were quite a few alcohol-induced spews on our front lawn and the window of a car of a friend, much to the amusement of the rest of the company and the designated driver wives. What a night it was…