Heirlooms we don’t have in our family. But stories we’ve got

At the postgraduate student orientation last night someone asked me how M and I met. Thinking about it, I’ve been asked the same question quite a few times now. Always by women, and always when I least expect it. Last night I was not expecting it because I was there with a group of people, some of whom had done the organising of the event, and others who were there because like me, they had to talk about some service available to the students. I gave them a slightly cut-down version – what I usually tell people I don’t know all that well. Their response was, Awww. They probably asked because M was there, they knew we were married in March, and they were being friendly. I wonder what M thought.

I suppose, after all that, I ought to tell the story here too. M and I met at the Fremantle Markets. Was it in 1991? Or 1992? (I think M says he saw me around before that, at various watering holes around town, but I don’t remember.) I was a poor struggling student at the time and my Dad got me a job at Freo, working at a fruit and veg stall. The owners were M’s parents! I worked on Saturdays, bagging fruit and serving customers. M was a poor student at the time too, and he worked for his parents as well, but his regular workday was Sunday so I only saw him very occasionally. I didn’t know him at all at this time.

Anyway one day B, M’s Dad, asked if I could swap days and work Sundays instead. No doubt you can guess the rest. We started talking, and found that we had many similar interests. B probably regretted asking me to swap, because M and I would spend so much of the time talking! [Note: I usually stop at this point! 🙂 ] M had a girlfriend at the time, and I think he really started to piss her off because he talked about me so much. The times she came down to the markets she used to glare at me; I used to tell myself not to do anything naughty and just keep it to the conversations. When they split up, I told myself not to get too keen – I didn’t want to be the ‘rebound’ girlfriend – but to cut a long story short, some weeks after the break up, M emailed me, and the rest, as they say, is history!

I really enjoyed my time at the stall, although it could be quite tiring. You’re on your feet all day and it can get quite busy. The customers were mostly quite pleasant. Apart from some elderly people who would try to steal the fruit, or sneak an extra kilo of stuff onto the scales, and get irate when you tried to charge them for it. I worked there for some years and really got to know the W family quite well. I was there when M’s grandmother passed away (cancer), and when his sister had her first baby (who is now 9!), I learned who’s who and who’s doing what, and now I’m part of the family too. As my Dad likes to joke, I went and married the Boss’s son!

Categories: family