Our Old Cumnorians’ reunion in May 2023 was a resounding success, but it also led to a renewed romance for old friends, Samantha and Rupert and we are delighted to share their heart-warming story.
“Rupert and I both started at Cumnor aged 7 as full-time boarders. Although I was very homesick at the time, I loved being part of what felt like one big happy family, with Nick and Anna Milner-Gulland and Mr Wigan, as our surrogate parents and teachers of all things wise and wonderful.
I am not sure when I became friends with Rupert, but I know that there was a very special bond between us. We spent so much of our free time racing around what felt like our kingdom. After we left Cumnor, we continued to write ‘love letters’ to each other, and I still have those letters to this day.
But, in the age before the internet, we lost touch as we moved into our teenage years and changed schools, and life swept us along. I left England when I was 20 years old and moved to New Zealand, married, and had two sons and lived my life on the other side of the world. But then, after being divorced for many years, out of the blue, came a Cumnor reunion email, with a Facebook group full of my old friends and more importantly, an opportunity to reconnect.
My heart skipped many beats as I read that Rupert would be attending! We reconnected after I tentatively asked if he remembered me and soon we were talking morning and night. The years fell away and we were instantly best friends once more, amazed by the familiarity and the joy of being together again.
After a year of Facetime, and two wonderful trips to see each other in our respective countries, someone had to make the leap – and so in March 2024, I moved to London to be with Rupert.
On 1st August 2024, we came to visit Cumnor, our first time back there together for 42 years, and as we walked around our old haunts, we stopped by what we used to call the ‘camouflage’ or Monkey Tree (now called the Dragon Tree), where he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.
We both feel so grateful to Cumnor, to Nick (“Sir”) and Anna, and to the time we spent racing about the grounds, and for those that organised the leavers’ reunion, for bringing us back together.
All of us at Cumnor wish Rupert and Sam huge congratulations!
