Chapter 2

Our Life Together

A week after we were married, we sailed from Sydney to Auckland on a cruise ship to start our new life together in New Zealand. We moved into a flat in Devonport, Eileen found work locally and we were settling into married life. We would often go for walks along the harbour front and on the weekends, take a drive to explore the northern beaches and further afield. Our time together was just perfect and we were in such a beautiful part of the world.

For most couples there is a period of adjustment when starting to live together, but for us it seemed like a natural progression; we blended into each other’s lives seamlessly and were at ease with our partnership. It was the coming together of two souls parted by time, although at the time I was totally unaware of this, for spirituality had not caught up with me yet.

For me it was a dream come true, a dream that I had not even envisioned would be part of my life. Here I was enjoying life with my beautiful Eileen—so caring, so kind, and so loving—life could not be better. Over the following year our relationship grew and blossomed and we became closer than I had ever felt with anyone before; we were blissfully happy and content with our lives. Eileen’s Mum would come over and visit periodically, and we always had a great time taking her places and enjoying the sights. Eileen was very close to her Mum and it must have been difficult for her to make the move to New Zealand and leave her family behind, but she had chosen to come with me, and that confirmed that she loved me as much as I did her. Her Mum’s visits were a great comfort to her.

When our first child was born, it was at a time when husbands were considered superfluous in the hospitals, so after I took Eileen in, I was sent home and told I would be rung after the birth. Our daughter was born at 3:51am, and I wasn’t even rung until 7!

At that time, mothers and babies were kept in the hospital for a week and visiting hours were for just one hour in the afternoon and one in the evening, which really wasn’t enough, so it was great when the time came for Eileen and our gorgeous new baby girl to come home. Eileen’s Mum was on hand and helped us a lot in those first few weeks while we were learning the ropes on how to handle this bundle of joy, but when she returned to Australia, it was obvious that Eileen was missing her family, so we decided to leave New Zealand and return to Australia.

“ When Michael proposed to me, I knew that when we married, we would be going to New Zealand to live and this had mixed emotions attached; I dearly wanted to be with this man I loved but would miss my family. After we were married, we had the cruise to New Zealand to look forward to; the seas were kind to us and we enjoyed the ship’s facilities. When we arrived, the next week or so was occupied settling in and making our flat our home. Although I was far from my family, we were enjoying our life together, exploring the nearby surroundings and finding our special places.

I found work quickly and life was good, although I still missed my Mum especially. I never said anything to Michael, for it was his happiness that was foremost in my mind, and it was only after our baby was born and Mum had gone home that I started to struggle with thi