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So was he ever allowed home on leave?
Yes, the Army call it R&R, it stands for Rest & Recuperation and he was allowed to fly home once in 7 months. When I went to meet him the feeling was amazing. There he was, standing in front of me, safe and sound. Of course, the time for him to go back came around too quickly and as you can imagine, it was quite a tearful departure!
So would you always know when he was going to be at home next?
Well, yes I was supposed to, but little did I know that the next time I would see him would be a total surprise. Like the surprise of a lifetime!
Tell me more...
Well, it was on the run up to Christmas last year. I was frantically decorating my house, ready for Jay’s return at Christmas time. I couldn’t wait for him to be here and just wanted everything to be perfect. Things at this time were getting really
quite bad in Afghan’, so I was glad of loads to do around the house to keep me really busy and just divert my attentions a bit. On this particular Sunday, two weekends before Christmas I got up super early, well super early for a Sunday, think it was about 7, to get on with my decorating chores. I was a little bit behind schedule! Generally I was feeling happy that day, thinking about Jay’s return in about a fortnight or so. Up to this point though, he had been quite vague about exactly which day he would be back. He just kept saying he would let me know as soon as possible. It was about 2 in the afternoon and
the phone rang, I picked up but no one answered. I did the missed call thing but couldn’t retrieve the number. I went back to painting the skirting board in the dining area. 5 minutes later there was a knock on the door. I remember thinking, who on earth is this and how I looked an absolute mess, but it probably didn’t matter, it would just be Mum and Dad calling by to see how things were going. I shouted ‘hang on a sec’ and removed my paint covered rubber gloves. I opened the door... it was Jay! Oh my god, he was just standing
there with the biggest smile ever, I grabbed him, I kissed him, I cried. ‘What’s going on?’, ‘how come you’re home?’, ‘why didn’t you call?’ (he had, it was him that had called earlier, just
checking I was in but had blocked the call). He couldn’t get a word in edgeways, we hadn’t moved off the doorstep. He just looked at me and smiled. He made no attempt to come in, just stood there smiling. My head was just all over the place. I couldn’t believe the love of my life was standing, large as life, right in front of me. I genuinely think I was in shock. Then Jay just put down the flowers
he was carrying, put down his bags, went down on one knee, and went to a pocket in his jacket. He pulled out a little black box, flipped open the lid to reveal a gorgeous ring. He held it out towards me and gently said please will you marry me?’ I couldn’t believe it.
Oh my god, that’s so romantic, being proposed to like that right out of the blue, it’s every girl’s dream. So what did you say?
‘ I don’t think I could take him
doing another tour of Afghanistan
’
‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’, I just kept repeating myself. Oh, it was amazing. My head was spinning. I can just remember feeling so totally overwhelmed.
Was all this still happening on the doorstep?
Yes, we hadn’t moved. But then Jay said ‘just hang on there a sec’ and went over to his hire car parked on the street. He came back with quite a big box and placed it at my feet, I looked down. The top was slightly open, so I pulled back the flap and there sat a little scruffy grey puppy looking up at me. God he was so cute. Jay reached down, picked him up, gave him to me and said he liked the name Dexter, what did I think?
So he obviously knew you liked dogs?
Oh yes. I had always said to Jay I loved the dog on the Moonpig advert and he knew I loved dogs generally. So he had set about finding a breed as close to the Moonpig one as he could. Dex’ doesn’t look anything like that dog now, but he did when he was a puppy.
So he’d asked you to marry him, brought you a dog and you didn’t know he was coming home. It must have been amazing?
You know, I still cry when I think about that day and he had some other news too.
More surprises?
Yes, he told me he was leaving the Army so we could settle down together. You must have been over the moon?
Yes, that bit was the best news ever. It wouldn’t have mattered, we would be getting married whether he was a soldier or not, but the thought of him being with me every day without the possibility of having to be apart for ages if he ever got another posting abroad, was fantastic. I couldn’t believe it.
What a story Lindsey. So when’s the big day?
14th of April next year, so the preparations have started. Jay’s out of the Army now and we all live together in my house in Chester, it’s heaven. I know the title of this feature is ‘new
me’ and ever since the day he proposed, that’s how I’ve felt, brand new and so looking forward to our life together.
LINDSEY’S WEARING: Diana Vickers Printed Frill Front Blouse £40 91% polyester, 9% elastane. Machine washable. Stone Print. GB 667 20 wks £2.00
JAY’S WEARING: Bench Funnel Neck Knitted Top £72 Cotton. Navy CQ 033 20 wks £3.60
DEXTER’S WEARING: Shaggy coat, models own.
LEFT: Jay & me outside Buckingham Palace for HRH Princess Anne’s garden party to celebrate her birthday. This was in recognition of Jay’s service in Afghanistan. (Princess Ann is Colonel in Chief of Jay’s old regiment.)
BOTTOM: Jay in Afghanistan with his most trusted and much loved sniffer dog, Quinny.
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