FAST-TRACK LOVE

These three women are proof that taking it slowly isn’t always the answer to a long, happy relationship

- VERONIQUE HAWKSWORTH, PAULA ROBINSON.

‘We hadn’t even been out on a date when he proposed’

Wafaa Powell, 60, lives with her husband David, 62, in Wiltshire. When my brother’s best friend David dropped to one knee, I couldn’t help bursting out laughing in disbelief. Yet it was really happening – just two weeks after we had first met, David was proposing.

It was July 1996, and I had been visiting my older brother and his wife in South Africa when I first met David. I was instantly drawn to his friendly nature and good looks, but I was just out of an eight-year relationship and wasn’t looking to jump into another.

SNAP DECISION

The day after we met was my birthday, and David surprised me with an intricate pendant on a gold chain. I took it as a friendly gesture and, over the next few days, we enjoyed dinners together with my brother.

Then, two weeks after we first met, David and I were alone in the lounge when he dropped to one knee. I was stunned – we hadn’t even been on a date!

I wasn’t in love with David yet, but I felt so comfortable and safe around him, and something told me I’d be a fool to turn him down. So I said yes! Family were shocked, but supportive, which was just as well – I’d have had no time to talk them round as my holiday visa was about to run out.

A week later, on 3 August 1996, I walked down the aisle in a long, white dress before hosting a reception for 25 guests. After our wedding, we moved into David’s flat and, two years later, our daughter Claire was born. When we decided to move back to the UK, in 2000, for a better family life, I was pregnant with our son Gareth.