A Chance Encounter by Rhona McLeod
September 25th 1999. Through a slight heat haze, the Garden of the Gods lay below me. A phenomenon of red sandstone towers and pinnacles. The stunning backdrop for the wedding of Nancy Gonsalves and Bill Baum; two people I had never met.
I found myself at this most beautiful of weddings in Colorado Springs, USA, because of one of my best friends, Sharon Newcomer. We had been team-mates on the track team at the University of Wyoming some 15 years before. She was invited to a friend’s wedding – one of the tight-knit bunch of friends who worked at the United States Olympic Committee. I was her date for the wedding!
The table linen was crisp; the silverware was shining. It was a perfect and romantic day. I met Sharon’s friends and they welcomed me. But inevitably, as any stranger at any wedding knows, there are moments of feeling awkward and out of place. As the photos were taken, Sharon had to leave my side to be in the various group shots.
I saw a man also standing alone. He was wearing a tartan bow-tie… Surely that was a conversation opener! AND his name was Bruce! There must be some Scottish tale of heritage to be told!
I remembered being impressed with this Bruce Cook from a story told to me by Sharon the night before. Bruce had grown up in North Dakota. A couple of years before there had been dreadful flooding in Fargo, Bruce’s home town.
He was over 1000 miles away in Colorado Springs when he heard the news. His mother lived in Fargo and her home and neighbourhood were possibly threatened. Bruce hated the futility of sitting back and waiting.
Early next morning he began his 15 hour drive. On his arrival in Fargo he started sandbagging. After working in his own neighbourhood, he moved on to others. He did what he could for 2 days ‘til he had to return to work. A total of 30 hours driving and over 2000 miles covered. This indeed sounded like someone who’d go to the ends of the earth for his fellow man.
And so back to the wedding - the tartan bow-tie, and the hope of someone to talk to. I felt confident as I smiled and said, “Your name’s Bruce, right, and you’re wearing a tartan bow-tie! You must be Scottish!”
“No… I’m not”……..
So at this point, I was feeling pretty shallow and a lot less confident. Just then Sharon grabbed me off to meet more people.
That night there was another social gathering. Phantom Canyon in downtown Colorado Springs was a bar straight out of every American College movie. Great atmosphere and a fun crowd. And pool tables…. But I am terrible at pool.
I was asked to play against another couple, but I didn’t have a partner. At that moment, Bruce walked in and was thrust in my direction by another friend, Chris Vadala.
So Bruce and I began our campaign to stay on the table. I apologised profusely before we began about my lack of skill, telling him we’d be beaten soon….. However, for one night only, that was not the case!
I was awesome! I played some incredible shots! They truly thought I was a ringer. I loved it! It felt great to be good at something in front of the ‘Humanitarian of North Dakota!’ Even something as frivolous as pool.
We laughed as we defeated couple after couple. I was finding Bruce to be good company and was certainly feeling attracted to him. And of course winning meant we could spend more time together on the table. Fate seemed to be holding us together!
When we were finally beaten, I mustered my courage and offered to buy him a drink. Thankfully he accepted and we left the main group to go to a quiet table. He bought the drinks and we began to talk. After the preliminaries – age, occupation, parents, brothers and sisters etc, we really began to talk.
I found in Bruce such a level of calmness, companionship and comfort – even on this, our first hours together. I told him things I’d never shared with others. We both invested our innermost feelings to a stranger. But not feelings about each other…..
What was the point, I thought. I was leaving the next evening, to return home to Scotland.
After Phantom Canyon I hopped in the car with him and a group of us returned to Chris Vadala’s house. Sharon and I were staying there… and Chris had a hot-tub!
Perhaps our friends sensed what was happening, I’m not sure. But it seemed to be just me and Bruce in the hot-tub. The sky was clear – a bright moon on a navy sky. The hot steam rose into the crisp Colorado air.
If either of us had made any confession of attraction, the evening could have turned in a very predictable direction at this point. But it didn’t.
No doubt we sat close, and may have brushed hands, or even a touch of the neck to move a stray lock of hair. But that was all. For me, this intoxicating moment was enough. I was not ready for a full-on, lets get together for 24 hours scenario – and Bruce was the perfect gentleman.
We talked for hours and I felt, on the other side of the world, I had met someone very special indeed. We seemed to be in harmony in so many ways. It broke my heart to think, after years of waiting for my one true love, he would be living his life over 4000 miles away.
And so at the end of this perfect day, we said goodbye. We exchanged e-mail addresses, hugged, and Bruce Cook went back home to his house on Happiness Drive. As he left that night, I wondered what chance of happiness I was leaving behind.
Bruce visited me in Scotland two months later. We spent 14 months transatlantic dating and then married in Hawaii in January 2002. Briagha was born in October 2002, Coirilidh in November 2003.
Rhona MacLeod is a news and sports presenter for BBC Scotland.
