First step towards love
Bruce and Sally Davis. celebrity 'stalkers'
Artist Wilda Goyetche
In 2001, still living in Canada, I was offered a job in IT at the Bank of Bermuda in Bermuda. Because I was moving there alone, they flew me over to meet some of the people I’d be working with so I could see what I was getting myself into. One of the people I met was Steve Williams, a Geordie lad wearing long knee socks and Bermuda shorts as office attire!
He had such a thick accent I couldn’t understand anything he said. He took me to lunch and I just tried to nod and smile at the right times because I had no idea what he was talking about! At the same I was charmed by him, so much so that I nearly didn’t go to Bermuda because I thought an office romance would be a bad way to start a new job! In the end, of course, I did go to Bermuda and we worked side by side. On our lunch breaks we’d go to the gym and on weekends we went water-skiing.
We moved to Sheffield in 2004 and got married at Sheffield Town Hall in 2008.
I still struggle to understand his accent and I perhaps that’s what keeps it fresh!
Lord Mayor Sylvia Dunkley
John was having a party – I think it was 18th birthday. I was a student at college in South London, and we lived quite near each other. His mother had said to my friend’s mother: “Can you find some girls?” I was quite keen on one of his friends at the time! He was a rather tall guy and we just seemed to hit it off. We had things in common. We used to go to jazz and folk clubs – I remember going around the North Circular on his motorbike on a Friday night. We went all the way to Florence on the bike, driving through France in the pouring rain. Then it was sweltering in Florence and we were the only people in black leathers! We were away for three weeks and didn’t fall out, so I think that cemented the relationship. We got married as soon as John finished at Cambridge.
Magician Steve Faulkner
Whilst street-performing in Australia, I stopped off at Byron Bay. A guy I met had offered me a room but after a night of hell in an undecorated, spider-infested garage and after discovering that the bloke in question was an insane ex-convict (it’s a long story), I grabbed my backpack and fled. I found myself at a hostel where I met and befriended a beautiful girl from Sheffield who had no interest in me whatsoever.
After a couple of months of me pretending to be content with a platonic friendship I made my move and, as predicted, Mandy had no interest whatsoever. She was rightfully worried that I was living in London and her in Sheffield. I was a street performer and she was studying. How could this work? Anyone who knows me will know that I will dedicate myself completely to anything, or indeed anyone that I feel ‘right’ about. Mandy didn’t realise that I would quite happily change my travel plans, and indeed my life, to be with her.
Without that man being insane and putting me in a garage, I would still be living in a flat in London as a street performer and not in lovely Sheffield with my beautiful family. I’m a lucky man.
Production manager and music producer Mat Steel
In 2003 I was on a working trip that took me to Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong, where I stayed for a month while my colleague Mark Fell worked on an installation in the Hong Kong Film Archive.
We befriended a German guy who had just met Sunshine Wong for a German/Cantonese language exchange. He brought her to the opening and dinner afterwards, where we sat together and hit it off. She promptly became our guide for the next couple of weeks, we saw a lot of each other, eventually managing to ditch everyone else one night to go for a drink on our own.
We both knew it was crazy to get involved when I was about to fly 6,000 miles away but did so anyway. Saying goodbye was tough, something we had to get used to as we maintained a relationship across eight time zones. Sunshine moved to Berlin for her MA, which made it easier for a while (along with the assistance of Ryanair and Skype), but ultimately long-distance relationships are really hard work.
We had done this for eight years until we finally got married last year at Sheffield Town Hall on the hottest October day ever. We’re now enjoying living in the same place. No more Skype!
Boxing trainer Brendan Ingle
I had been in Sheffield just over 18 months. I used to follow jazz, and it was in a club. I think it was somewhere down The Moor. I was with a mate and we saw these two girls and got chatting. After an hour talking to Alma, I said to myself I’ll be married to you within a year, and we were. I’m not sure it was the best thing that she has ever done but it was the best thing I have done!
She was good looking, she had a good education and she had common sense. That’s very important. A lot of people have a good education but no common sense.
lBrenda and Alma Ingle celebrated their golden wedding anniversary last July.
Real Radio ‘celebrity stalker’ Bruce Davis
I met my lovely wife, Sally, outside Radio 1 in London in 1998 while we were both waiting for DJ Clive Warren. She didn’t want me there because she wanted to meet him alone,but I wasn’t going anywhere. I wooed Sally by buying her a lovely McDonald’s meal and it worked as we kept in touch! I lived in Christchurch in Dorset and moved up to live in Sheffield as Sally chickened out of moving down south. I proposed to her at a Clive Warren gig in Poole and we got married on in July 1999, so that’s 13 years this year. Comedy Dave from the Chris Moyles show on Radio 1 gives a lovely mention in his book which came out last November about how Sally and I met, so we are well known at Radio 1.
Penistone and Stocksbridge MP Angela Smith
I met Steve over ten years ago, in the Town Hall. He was introduced to me in what is now the conference room on the first floor, at that time it was the members’ common room. I can’t remember being particularly bowled over, it just struck me that he was very tall and very dark. He still dyed his hair in those days, whereas now he’s growing old gracefully and letting the grey bits show!
We became friends immediately. It was obvious from very early on that there was something there, and we’ve never looked back. We share a passion for politics, Sheffield Wednesday and anything to do with ships and the sea, so we’re well suited really.
Street Food Chef owner Abi Golland
Richard and I met on the Isis River in Oxford in the early 1990s, while I was teacher training. Richard lived on a boat and ran the Soundbite Café – the first vegetarian restaurant in Oxford – and we were introduced by a mutual friend.
We became good friends; we would row along the river to the local pub and barbecue on the riverbank. Richard had an old butcher’s bike and I remember sitting in the huge basket while he peddled along the towpath – as it was midnight and the path was bumpy, that experience was more frightening than romantic!
Richard’s mum passed away that year, so when Christmas came I invited him to spend the day with my family. He arrived on Christmas morning, planning to have lunch then go back to his boat, but two days later he was still there. I think my mum’s fantastic cooking was the final clincher and we got together soon after that. Richard stayed on the boat for a good while and when we got married we had our reception on the river bank. We decided we didn’t want to raise a young family in a boat but we plan to get back to the river one day.
Silverdale School food technician Lucie Bolsover
Dennis and I had worked at Silver- dale School together for seven years but were just friends – there is a 28-year age gap between us. We were both unhappily married, then went through divorces, but spent time together as part of a crowd of friends. On several occasions I was asked by a well-known Sheffield psychic: “Have you met that man at school yet? The Libra who you’ll go out with?” But I never even considered Dennis!
Fate finally threw us together in May 2010 and after just two months together we were shocked to discover I was pregnant. We got married in September last year and Dennis, who has since retired, looks after baby Billy while I work. He’s 64 and I’m 37 but we’re extremely happy and it’s brilliant! I love them both so much. Age doesn’t matter at all.
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