A Little Bit of History

Tanya Louise Fruen and Hayward James Godwin first spoke over email to arrange a time for Tanya to take part in one of Hayward’s experiments back in 2007.  Tanya was keen to gain course credit for taking part in experiments as part of her Psychology undergraduate degree. And Hayward… well, he needed lab rats.

Hayward initially made the mistake of turning Tanya down as his experiment was full. But then, a few months later, he started a new experiment and invited her to take part. After some email shenanigans, they first met on November 8th 2007, and still have the paperwork to prove it; something which is about as romantic as it sounds. From first meeting, they have been close friends ever since. Tanya brought Hayward Haribo when coming to take part in his experiments, and Hayward really liked that.

After finally managing to get it together in late 2016, they celebrated a decade-long friendship by taking a trip to Swanage in November 2017. Hayward planned the whole trip, but somehow failed to realise it would have been a great opportunity to ask her to marry him. I mean, it had a steam train, a visit to a castle, and stunning sea views. Friends who knew about the trip would later slap Hayward both verbally and physically for failing to realise the opportunity sooner (particularly those who had placed bets on him popping the question during the trip).

After much scheming and near-constant lies, Hayward finally, eventually, ultimately asked Tanya to marry him on his birthday in February 2018. This surprised exactly zero people who have seen them together, but Tanya was somehow still surprised by it. (She said yes.)

Their experiences stand as a testament to the fact that, no matter how blind two people can be to the fact that they should be together, eventually, somehow, what’s meant to be… is meant to be. Que sera sera…