The wedding will be wicked

BY LES WATKINS

When 'Dracula' proposed to the 'witch', it marked a remarkable early success by the country’s newest companionship club, Face 2 Face.

Members Inga Zimmerman of Orewa and Doug Harrison of Gulf Harbour decided to marry just three weeks after their first meeting at the club, launched in March by Marilynna Burton of Arkles Bay.

The proposal that steered them towards their November 25 wedding wasn’t merely flamboyantly colourful. It was breath-takingly bizarre.

They were at a Halloween fancy-dress party when Doug, a retired appliance technician – temporarily transformed into "a sort of Dracula wizard" – plucked up the courage to pop the question.

"Well yes, I love the idea but surely a wizard can ask with more panache," said Inga, a mobile hairdresser who on this occasion was a witch. "For starters, shouldn’t you be on your knees?"

"Not sure that’s a good idea," he replied. "I might have a problem getting up again."

Inga found cushions on which he could kneel.

And, as he did so, Marilynna asked if he was really serious.

"Never been more serious," he said. "I want to marry this witch."

"We’d both had our share of loneliness," says 72-year-old Inga.

"Doug’s been a widower for nearly two years and I’ve been on my own since my divorce 35 years ago.

"Suddenly that awful emptiness has gone and our lives are marvellous."

"Absolutely," says 79-year-old Doug, who recently moved to Gulf Harbour after 27 years at Snells Beach. "And for that we’re grateful to the Rodney Times.

"We knew nothing about Marilynna’s wonderful club until May 26 when we read a front-page story written by Juliet McGhie."

That story told how Marilynna, a 58-year-old divorcee, had been alone for 18 years and had started her own introductions group because she felt dating agencies didn’t cater for older people.

"There are lots of lonely people who really need like-minded companions, and with this group they can meet them so easily and in such a relaxed way," she says.

"This is not a money-making venture but is designed simply to help widowed or divorced people make new friends." Rodney, she soon found, is short of available older men.

That’s why on a visit to England in April she recruited three prepared to move here – and created a blaze of publicity in the UK as well as in New Zealand.

"But we still need more men," she says.

"We now have 97 women, aged 39 to 85, and 26 men aged 41 to 87."

Eligible men can contact her on 021-457-188.

Media interest continues to grow nationwide.

Marilynna was on TV One’s Breakfast show explaining how members of the group, which meets at various venues throughout Rodney, are able to chat one-on-one before meeting another person.

"These face-to-face meetings, with no surnames or phone numbers given unless mutually agreed, are the only satisfactory answer," she says.

"We’re not interested in digital dating or email chatting because almost anything, true or not, can be fed through a keyboard."

There’ll probably be more publicity for Inga and Doug on TV One on November 18. They’ve been invited to appear on the Breakfast show hosted by Paul Henry.

And Inga offers a caution to the celebrant who’ll conduct the ceremony on November 25.

"I was happy being a witch when Doug proposed," she says. "But there’s a time and place for everything, and you might get thumped if you dare ask if he takes this old witch to be his lawful wedded wife."

- © Fairfax NZ News