An Unexpected Engagement: Valerie May Taylor

A year or so ago Ernie and I had the shortest engagement in history.

It was in Singapore at ADEX 2015 on the last day. I was their special Guest of Honor and Ernie was also an honored guest. We were both on the stage facing an audience of several hundred mostly Asian divers. It was to be our last performance. Ernie had his arm around me in a totally friendly way. He started his speech saying "Valerie and I are engaged' He got no further . the crowd erupted into yelling and screaming congratulations. Members of the audience were whipping out their phones to spread the news . Ernie was trying to get the rest of his sentence out which was "Valerie and I are engaged in helping to have the trade in shark fins into China stopped". The story of our engagement went viral. We never did get our speeches sorted. I never even got to mine, Ernie and myself were so busy calming the situation down. Michael Aw leapt onto the stage and hugged us both saying "congratulations, wonderful the perfect match." There seemed to be a hundred delighted people photographing us.

Other people rang from the US. 

With polite excuses we escaped to a coffee shop outside the venue.. Ernie's daughter rang and asked if they were all going to live in Australia now. Another lady called and I heard Ernie denying we were engaged.

Yes it must have been the shortest engagement in history and also the most unexpected.

However if I was ever to become engaged to someone it would be Ernie, the dearest sweetest man in the world. Ernie we don't need to be engaged. I do love you and I know you love me back. That is enough to make me happy.