A Very Happy Anniversary To A Couple Who Met At Camp!

Summer 2002 at Timber Lake West remains – to this day – the very best summer I have had. I had always been really interested in spending a summer working abroad, so upon noticing a poster advertising Camp America, it was a no brainer: a few phone calls, a little paperwork and a couple of interviews later and that was it – an offer of a place at Timber Lake West, NY State, dropped through my letter box, and before I knew it I had landed in America and arriving at Camp for a summer of work as a Camp Counselor!

I can’t even begin to explain what an incredible summer I had at Timber Lake West. Anyone who has ever experienced TLW – whether as staff or camper – will know exactly what I mean! The location, the facilities, the fellow staff, the campers, the weather (that us Brits are not accustomed to!), the endless fun activities for all, the socializing, the personal growth that takes place in those 8 weeks or so…it is all simply beyond compare. I just didn’t want it to end, and indeed I stayed on to work at what proved to be one of the most challenging, rewarding and memorable weeks of my life – Camp Happy Times – a camp dedicated to children with or recovering from cancer.

Amidst such an amazing life changing summer, my experience of Camp America 2002 was made all the more magic for meeting Sherina Stewart, a fellow British staff member member. We spent much of our spare time hanging out together and chatting, which eventually blossomed into more than that. We had the most wonderful summer of work and play together, and both continued to date back in England. However, two years later, we made the really difficult mutual decision to give each other the space we both needed in order to explore our own exciting new careers. However, Sherina never left my mind, and I couldn’t ever truly believe that she was the one who ‘got away’: in my heart, she was always ‘the one’. So, you can imagine my absolute delight when life happened to synchronize for us once again in 2010. We rekindled a love that (as cliched as it sounds!) never really died in all those intervening years, and exactly two years ago today – August 25th 2012 – Sherina and I married! It took us a while (well, 10 years to be exact!) but finally we got there.

Some 2002 TLW staff attended our wedding – Fred Binley and his wife, and Lindsay Braun and her family from America – which made our wedding that bit more magical! And, of course, good ol’ Facebook now means that we are in touch with many more other friends we made during that magical summer.

I’d like to take this moment to say Happy Anniversary to my beautiful, talented wife – and to say ‘hello’ and thank you to everyone else that was part of summer 2002 – the best summer in the world!

Love and best wishes to all!
Martyn