My first Kiss

Nyah begged us to take her to the temple so
she could walk around the grounds.  She felt
the need to dress in her white Barbie dress

In the last year we have had three weddings in the Stancombe/Reeve families and a number of friend's weddings that we have attended here in Melbourne.  One wedding has been on the beach, another in the beautiful Tasmanian wilderness and the others have been in a holy temple.  My eldest daughter Nyah, with all her dreams of becoming a princess one day, has been fascinated by these weddings.  Marriage is the cause of much conversation in our household.  I had noticed that Nyah was quite fond of a little guy in our ward (congregation) at church.  It was last Christmas in her church Primary class that her little boy friend was asked to play the role of Joseph.  I gathered from her description that her teachers where getting some of the children to play out the Nativity story.  Nyah was horrified when another little girl was chosen to be Mary.  She was telling me that “Abe and Alara had to link arms like this”….  Then she proceeded to show me exactly how it was done.  I asked if she would have liked to have been Mary and been able to link arms with Abe.  She blushed, did a nervous little giggle and said “yes”.  I had opened the flood gates of what became open conversation about Nyah marrying Abe in the temple followed by pictures of them getting married in the temple and donning her white Barbie dress and dance around talking about how it was her wedding dress.  Her father was quite alarmed for fear her was no longer Nyah’s favourite man.  It seemed like just yesterday Nyah had said “I’m going to marry daddy”.  This was quickly followed by “and Jesus”.  I didn’t think either one was morally right so I lovingly said “well darling, if you marry some one like daddy and like Jesus, you can’t go far wrong”. 

just one of the many portraits of Nyah and Abe together

So here is my four year old daughter gushing and getting a little silly wherever she would see Abe.  Here I was thinking, ‘this is way too young to be thinking about boys’.  Jim even sat her down for a little talk.  Imagine this for a moment.  Nyah has drawn a picture of her and Abe with hearts all over the page.  She has shown this to her father and told him that she loves Abe.  Jim sits her down and starts telling her about love.  He tells her about the love he have for our parents, our brothers and sisters, our friends and the love people must have for each other that would make them want to be married and committed to each other for all eternity.  Nyah listened intently and said “but daddy, Jesus said love everyone”.  And she was right.  A reminder to me of the following scripture found in the Book of Mormon:  “Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God” (3 Nephi 9:22).  And in Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart”. 

I reflected on what I was like when at Nyah’s age with regards to boys.  I too had a first love when I was around the same age as Nyah.  For the purpose of this blog we will call the boy Matty.  This may or may not be his real name.  He was about 18 months older than I.  I wanted to sit with him in primary and play kiss-chase after church.  As I got a little older it was no secret that I fancied Matty.  I began writing it on every page in the journal that I kept.  I was quite the lyricist.  Dad gave me a little tape recorder that had a microphone and on rainy days after school I would record myself singing all these ballads about Matty and I.  Now as a mother I watch Nyah doing the very same thing.  Her songs don’t really make much sense, but they are – in a round about way- about love and princesses and marrying Abe in the temple (which to a young child looks much like a princess castle). 

The San Diego Temple looks very
much like a castle 

In my teenage years, my girlfriends made me sign a “document” in my journal stating that I would marry none, other than the above mentioned ‘Matty’.  There are signatures of witnesses to this ‘document’ and everything.   I still have it in storage somewhere.  Good thing Matty didn’t sign anything, or we could be in a real pickle right about now. 

When you have grown up in Tasmania there are strong connections all over the State.  Everybody knows everybody or at least you know someone that knows everybody.  In my home town, you generally have a connection - either personally or through friends – with most people in your age group from the schools within a 20km radius.  A good friend of mine (Katrina) in my forth year of primary school did gymnastics with a girl from another school in the area.  Her name was Lucy.  Lucy and Katrina were good friends through gymnastics and on few occasions the three of us got together at Katrina’s and they showed me all their cartwheels and flips, attempting to show me how to do them.  They were a lot more agile than me.  I was just too lanky.  Interestingly enough, all three of us had something very much in common… we all camped with our families at the same beach each summer break.  So too did Matty’s family.  Matty’s family knew Lucy’s family whether it be through school, sport or other community events I do not know but when we were at the beach over the summer, we would all see each other from time to time. 

Lucy had an older sister by the name of Jess.  As a nine or ten year old I found Jess to be quite intimidating.  She had beautiful long dark hair and striking dark brown eyes.  Lucy and Katrina had told Jessy of my secret love for Matty.  The three of them dared me to go and kiss him.  I was so nervous and I really didn't know how I was going to approach the situation. Perhaps this is my earliest recollection of giving in to peer pressure.  I will admit, it really didn't take too much convincing.

So, as Matty headed off with a little net and a bucket to go and catch some fish in the rock pools on Croquet Lawn beach, I called out to him.  “Matty”, I said.  “I have a secret to tell you”.  He paused in his tracks and I ran up to him, pretended to whisper in his ear and then planted one on him.  The disappointing thing was I missed his lips.  I think I got his eye.  I didn’t stick around to see his reaction. I ran away, surely with a bright red face.  The girls found it quite amusing.  Matty did end up returning my kiss by the end of the day.  He was right on target and thus I received my very first kiss.  This was the first of many from him over the years, including the odd encounter at Mutual (youth group) on the roof of the church building. There you have it, the real reasoning for relocating the Launceston church steeple to the middle of the lawn.  It was so no one could shimmy up it to climb onto the roof for a bit of a kiss.

And what of Katrina, Jess and Lucy you ask?  Katrina and I remained good friends right through our school years and we are still in contact today.  Jess and Lucy later became my sisters-in-law after I met and married their little brother, Jimmy. Fancy that.

Little Jimmy on the beach at Bridport with his sisters.
Approximately 15 years later we would meet.
I've been kissing him now for almost 10 years.
He's the best kiss.