Radio 4
Home Truths
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About John Peel
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Best Woman
They'd been best friends since they were six years old - so Josina was the obvious choice to be the "best woman" at Matt's wedding...
 Josina and Matt |
Josina and Matt met at the age of 6 in Letchworth and became best friends. They were in the same class and played together after school.
But aged 10, they both moved away to other parts of the country with their families, Matt to South Wales and Josina moved to Worcester. They wrote to each other, which Matt describes as "a pretty cool thing to do because no-one else did it". They had too good a friendship to lose, even at that young age and they even have the letters they sent to each other aged 10. During this period, they only met up once. Nobody ever thought of them as boyfriend and girlfriend though.
Josina first met Matt's wife-to-be at Matt's twin brother's wedding. Matt was the best man and Teresa was the bridesmaid. Josina was Matt's guest and at the reception he sidled up to her and asked if she would mind getting a lift home with his cousins and disappeared off and spent the evening dancing with Teresa.
Josina and Matt never thought that boyfriends and girlfriends would damage their friendship. So when Matt decided to marry Teresa, Josina was the obvious candidate for 'Best Woman'. He says he was going through the list of his mates and realised that none was of as long standing as Josina. "The person who was going to be best man should be the person who knows me best outside my family and Josina fitted the bill perfectly". He didn't think the fact that she was female should be a stumbling block at all.
Matt phoned Josina shortly after he'd proposed to Teresa and said "I have a small favour to ask. I really didn't know what he was going to say next". Josina didn't hesitate in saying yes.
There was a stag weekend which was excessively laddish - Josina and a dozen or so RAF pilots. However, she has no idea whether strippers were involved because once the night clubbing started, she made her excuses and left.
 Josina with Matt and Teresa |
At the wedding itself, some of the guests were a bit bemused including the vicar. And Matt thought he was fairly safe as far as 'best man's' speech was concerned. He didn't think he had that much dirt on him. "I was pretty happy until about three lines in, and then my heart just sank". Josina says it was just a few tales about how accident prone he'd been growing up. She prepared by reading their childhood letters. She says, "there was so much material, I just had to sift through it all".
Josina hopes that if she gets married, Matt will be able to play some part in the proceedings. She says, "I did toy with the idea of making him my bridesmaid, although now he's married he'd have to be matron-of-honour." Although, she can't see him going along with that one. So Josina has made a deal with her father. Matt can have the honour of walking her down the aisle and giving her away.
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