Alfred and Barbara – a wonderful story of how perseverance makes all the difference

We were thrilled to hear the news that another two of our members have got together. Here’s their story in Alfred’s words

“I have been a beef and sheep farmer since I was sixteen and have been running my farm in Drumclog, Scotland for twenty years. I joined friends1st at the end of October 2017 after seeing the advert in a farmer’s magazine. I felt it was the right time for me to meet someone. I remember in the January after I joined that Sarah, in the friends1st office, thought it would be a great time for me to go to their ‘blind date’ event Birmingham. I made the effort to arrange everything so I could go, and I made it to the event. Sadly, my date and I did not work out. However it was a good experience, and it did give me time to think about what I was looking for and ultimately it made me more open minded about the person who I would like to be with.

Sarah encouraged me to contact as many of the ladies’ profiles that I was getting which led me to contacting them all! I always found that friends1st were there to support me. I was talking to a lot of ladies for 3 or 4 months at different times but as we did not meet up it always seemed to fizzle out. I felt that the ladies did not give me a chance to show what a kind, soft and loving person I am.

Sarah did say that I should keep trying and I always thought that my future wife would be in the next set of profiles.

Finally, I did meet a fine and lovely woman in January 2023. When I contacted Barbara, who lived in London, we talked until the 27th April 2023 up to 3 times a day. We finally met when she took a trip up to Scotland to stay in a hotel not far from my farm. When I met her off the train, I could not believe my eyes, she was so beautiful, and I was speechless! We greeted one another and I picked up her suitcase and carried it to my car without speaking a word. Barbara at the time was feeling like she wanted to get back on the train because I hadn’t spoken, but as Sarah in the friends1st office had said I was a lovely person, she knew she would give me a second chance. We both put our seat belts on and we started talking and within a few minutes we clicked and it felt like we had known each other for years. We spent all the time she had on her visit together, talking for the first two days nonstop. On the third day we laughed so much that we both lost our voices. Barbara loved getting involved on the farm as I was in the middle of lambing and she had great fun driving the quad bike around the fields. When she went home on the third day, I felt quite sad. I had realised that I had met my future wife.

Barbara came back up to Scotland a week later to see me and visit the farm.

Later in the Summer we went on a 4 day holiday. Then as Barbara had been doing all the running, I decided it was time to leave my farm and go to London for the first time. London was very busy and we did lots of sightseeing. On the second morning I said to Barbara we needed to find a jewellery shop to buy an engagement ring for when the time came. That Christmas Barbara came to Scotland and on the 27th December 2023 I asked Barbara to marry me.

In February, two days after Valentines Day, we went to look at hotels for our wedding. We picked the venue, the hotel, despite being booked up for 3 years, managed to get us booked in for 26/8/24. It was the best day of my life! I have found gold in Barbara; on my wedding day she was beautiful and as we locked eyes in the wedding car I was on top of the world!
Barbara never knows what is coming next as when I put my mind to something I like to get it done.

I would like to thank friends1st for such a wonderful wife.