My great grandmother, Dorothy Stebbing, left a short memoir about growing up in Rhodesia. In it is one of the coolest stories I’ve ever heard, about the way her parents met.

Here’s an extract of her writing, about her parents, Edith Bluett and Harry Le Paige Heaume:

My father came [to Rhodesia] from the Channel Islands in 1908, to join the Postal Department of the infant Civil Service. He had some fascinating tales to tell of those very early days, when, for instance, there were only the two hotels in Salisbury, the Queens at the Kopje end of the town, where a newer version of the same hotel still stands today, and the Avenue Hotel on the site of our present Legislative Assembly overlooking Cecil Square – now a pleasant small park, the site of the raising of the Pioneer Standard on the first Occupation Day, September 12th, 1890.

Dad met my mother when working in the Postal Service in England, over the telegraph. She was a telegraphist in Bristol Post Office, and when these men and girls had a slack period, they would cast about in the atmosphere for someone with whom to practise their telegraphy speed. This led, in due course, to an arrangement to meet, and to a rather unusual courtship carried on mainly in dots and dashes!

How incredible is that? My great great grandparents met each other over the telegraph, using Morse code.

What’s even more fascinating to me is that if they hadn’t found each other in this way, I wouldn’t exist today. Such a ridiculous cosmic encounter.

My mother came out to Salisbury with high ideals of Empire-building and all the rest of it, but it must be admitted that her heart sank when she stepped out of the train into the ankle-deep red dust of a Salisbury which then consisted of little more than scattered wood-and-iron shacks. On the first afternoon on which she went “calling”, with her new silver case of visiting cards, she wore the ankle-length white skirt in which she had been married, and, within a very short time of plodding along the dusty roads (albeit with ram-rod straight back and head held high under the large hat festooned with ostrich feathers).

I’ll post more about Dorothy Stebbing tomorrow 🙂 just found this story incredibly interesting. Thank you to my mom and uncle Dave for sharing it.

Image by National Archives of Rhodesia. The beginning of the city of Salisbury. Pioneer Street, Salisbury – 1891

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Song of the day: Henri Purnell & Anthony Keyrouz – Tired ft. Romy Wave