Tell me that story, the Christmas story, the one that enthralls me.

I had to laugh, for how many times had I told this story to her. Each year on Christmas Eve she would cuddle into my arms, rest her head on my shoulder and ask for this one story about us.

It had rained non-stop for five days.

All around the rivers were rising, the farms flooded,

People were beginning to worry and panic

It was Christmas in six days and what if the flood came on Christmas?

How was I to make it home?

Maria had called and told me the causeway was underwater and it would be too dangerous to make it through even in my four wheel drive

The treacherous nature of the old causeway made it impossible to negotiate in flood time.

The prospect of a Christmas away from Maria was too much to bear. I had been away on a business trip, the new wool was going to be our savior now that the price had been agreed on and we were so pleased the shearing had all been completed weeks before the rains set in.

Maria was the most perfect woman I had ever met. In talking about his trip I had suggested she come along with me, as she was always the best company and what man wouldn’t want his best mate along with him on any trip he took.

We had met in the final year of my Ag College course. She was a guest lecturer, her field was sheep husbandry.

I knew a lot about that stuff anyway and was distracted as she began, thinking of at least ten different things I would prefer to be doing at that precise moment.

It was her voice that attracted me. It wasn’t nasally like so many of the other lecturers at the College, it sounded educated, clear and concise. This woman, I thought knows what she is talking about.

I looked up to see her at the podium, and I fell for her there and then. I didn’t take any notes; rather my eyes were glued to the perfect woman in front of the class.

She can’t be any older than me I thought, and I determined there and then to try and attract her attention after the class.

At Ag College there are lots of people of all ages engaged in the Agriculture industry. Farmers go back there to re train, learn new techniques, refresh their skills and do course to gain accreditation to carry our procedures on their respective properties.

So it was not unusual for the lecturers to be much younger than the students.

Her name was Maria McRae and it turned out she was from Merriwa, at the top end of the valley. She had lived on a sheep and wheat property all her life and as she grew up the eldest of five girls. she was her dad’s ‘right hand’ man.

She was a strong looking woman but with the most cultured voice of any woman teacher I had come across.

Of course she had been told not to engage the students in anything but course work, and initially Maria was true to those instructions but as she later revealed to me, she too felt the attraction I felt.

To cut along story short we did go out, a lot, we did become firm friends, we did marry, we did go back to work on her family property, we did have a happy life, we did want family, a small girl came from that desire, we did become very engrossed in the business side of farming hence my visit overseas to negotiate the new price for out wool which was high grade merino.

And so this night of all nights there was an issue getting home.