When Helen Alder opened the door to bring her groceries in back in September 2017, she had no idea it would change her life.
At the time, she was a single divorcee mum-of-two and she wasn’t looking for love but romance quickly blossomed with the delivery driver Chris Goody.
Chris, 48, was working as a Tesco delivery driver in Stroud, Gloucestershire, and every week, he would go back to bring Helen her shopping. He would offer to bring them in for her and soon he was staying for a quick coffee or stopping to use her bathroom.
Eventually, he plucked up the courage to ask her out on a date, without the weekly shop sitting around them.
And from early on, Chris knew he would marry her some day, giving her the nickname FMG, which stands for future Mrs Goody, on their second date. Now, almost three years after meeting on Helen’s doorstep, the couple are planning their wedding – an elopement in July 2020, with just them and their dog Cedric.
Helen tells Metro.co.uk: ‘Back then it was just me and the kids and I had been single for years. I wasn’t looking for anything but I did think Chris was very handsome when he turned up.
‘We started off just chatting on the doorstep, then each week we would just talk more and more. He’d bring the shopping in, maybe have a drink and use the bathroom because it’s hard on the road. ‘He noticed that it was just me and the kids and then asked how long I had been single and things like that.
After about six weeks of chatting, he asked me if I wanted to go for a drink. ‘ Their first date was on 20 September 2017 and things moved quickly as just seven months later in April 2018, Chris moved in, and by May, he’d decided to ask Helen to marry him.
She adds: ‘We went on holiday to Devon and went for a day trip to Lundy Island. ‘When you get off the boat there, you have to walk up this hill and about a third of the way up, he said “Let’s rest for a few minutes”. We sat on a rock and he produced this ring box and asked me to marry him.
‘That place will always have a special place in our hearts.’ Since then, the couple have been planning their big day together, but decided that for the ceremony, they wanted something very simple, with just them and their dog Cedric, on 21 July 2020. They’ve planned a second celebration for friends and family at home in Gloucestershire.
