The Smith's Journal - October 2009

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2009-10-03

Lorna Doone Reay

Tags: Music, Drumming, Studio, Arts, Pro, Misc

You'd better make sure you're sitting down to read this... :-)

I have fallen in love with an amazing woman called Lorna Doone Reay from Thurso near Dounreay in bonnie Scotland. She is a flautist+singer+composer who teaches flute and lectures in World Music at The University of Hertfordshire. Her diverse collection of traditional musical instruments from around the globe complements my own wonderfully. And her paintings are also remarkable. She's assisting me in bringing my studio to fruition and is an inspiring presence around the house :-)

She is older than me but we are both children at heart and getting younger each day. Her father was an eminent nuclear physicist who designed the cooling system for the atomic power plant at Dounreay, as well as running a local printing press and craft shop in his spare time. After getting divorced, Lorna changed her name from her maiden name (Humphries) in honour of her father's work and her mother's love of the novel Lorna Doone, and also to pay homage to John Ray. He was a missionary in Kashmir who was telegraphed by the British High Commission when Lorna was kidnapped on her travels there (long+exciting story!). The Ray family rescued her and nursed her back to health when she had hepatitis, thus saving her life!

I CANNOT BELIEVE WE HAVE LIVED SO NEARBY AND TEACH AT THE SAME UNI BUT HAVE ONLY JUST MET!!! But it is for the best, since due to life circumstances we might not have got together if we'd have met before now. She came to my Bedford drumming group in July, then I drove her to African Beats Camp in August, a long voyage which forged our deep friendship and made it clear that we are carved of the same stuff. An increasing stream of emails back and forth and concerts ensued. Even though many friends already realised we were soulmates, it wasn't until September 20th (after a blissful weekend in London visiting Tate Modern and playing music in my garden) that we finally found the words to own up to our deep feelings for each other. Since then... WOW!

As a result of my already crammed life becoming 100% busier, updates to this website are likely to be even rarer. We apologise for the inconvenience but would like to report that life is so good that it is off the scale!

[NOTE: Initially I rather overexcitedly wrote a whole lot of stuff here about how wonderful Lorna is (well, she is! ;-) She later asked me to tone it down since she doesn't want to come across as some kind of prima donna (which she most definitely is not!). So I removed some things from the above that sounded a bit OTT. Please forgive the obsessive ramblings of an innocent soul who's waited twenty years to fall in love!]