A YEAR later, almost to the day, I met Corrie. It was February 1974.
I was selling telephone systems at the time, and I had had a pretty rough day so far. I was dying for a cup of tea, so I popped in to see Deborah, who was chief buyer for an engineering company – not to sell her a telephone system but to scrounge a cuppa.
Over tea it transpired that they were looking for communications equipment for a new ammonium nitrate plant in Swaziland and that Corrie had the opposition’s salesman in his office at that very moment.
She would get me an appointment right now.
When we were introduced, my first impression was of a pair of vivid blue eyes looking straight into mine. This was a little disconcerting as the average man’s gaze was usually directed a little lower down my anatomy on first meeting!
He had a firm hand-shake and that aura of impatience of a man who does not suffer fools gladly. He led me to his office – even with his limp he almost left me standing – and straight to the drawing board, where he explained the set-up and asked the sort of questions that no one would think of asking unless he already knew the answers.
That explained the aura of impatience – Corrie thought I was a fool!
I think he changed his mind when I suggested having rubber telephones in areas which might have a corrosive atmosphere and pointed out that, as ammonium nitrate and diesel made a highly explosive mixture, he might suggest to chief engineer that he move the diesel pump away from the final product conveyor belt.
The following day he phoned with an order number and an invitation to dinner and Deborah phoned to tell me what she thought I ought to know about him.
His father had been a professional hunter and his mother a mission doctor. He had spent most of his life in the bush, studied engineering in London, flown with the Royal Rhodesian Air Force, despite his smashed-up leg and was in the middle of a divorce which, she said, made him very vulnerable.
And, she warned me: “If you break his heart, I’ll break your neck.”
This put a bit of damper on our courtship, so that it took us a whole week to decide to get married. We went out shopping for an engagement ring and bought a house instead.
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