- Beverley Jones started dating Mike Jones (no relation) when she was 17. He was her first boyfriend.
- They broke up after 4 months because Beverly didn't want to settle down. They later wed other people.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Beverley Jones. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Mike and I met in a bar in our home village in Wales in 1980. He was seven years older than me. I was 17 and looked up to him, finding him very distinguished.
We enjoyed hanging out with our friends in pubs and discos. He worked in agriculture. I was training to be a hairdresser at the time and hated it. I wanted to leave the village and discover the world.
It was one of the reasons Mike ended it after four months. He knew that I wasn't the type to settle down. He was my first boyfriend, and I was devastated, but there were no ill feelings.
In my early 20s, I moved 150 miles away to London, where I established my corporate career. I held various management positions.
I had fun going to restaurants and taking vacations, but I still had the rent to pay. I got into a spiral of working long hours, including weekends, and didn't take any time for self-care.
I got married in 1992. It lasted two years. Meanwhile, I continued my journey as a workaholic — until the habit caught up with me. Around 2009, I got so busy I couldn't get my head around anything.
I didn't read books; I ate loads of junk food. It got to the point where I couldn't do it anymore. I went to the doctor, who said I had depression.
I felt like a failure who'd let everyone down — myself, my parents, and my staff. But, with the help of medication, mindfulness, and therapy, I began to recover.
The biggest change was moving back home to my village in 2010. I wanted all the things that drove me away when I was young: the quietness and the fact that everybody knew everybody in the community. I felt supported by kind and friendly people.
I bumped into Mike, then a father of two, outside a restaurant in a nearby town. I'd heard that he was divorced and his subsequent, long-term relationship had broken down. I said I was sorry.
We swapped numbers and chatted about old times. Memories came back, but we also talked about my issues with anxiety and depression. He was incredibly understanding. Then, what began as a rediscovered close friendship turned into romance.
"Why aren't you two together?" a friend asked me once. "No," I said. "It wouldn't work. He's all about farming and working outside, and I'm from the business world, spending all day on the computer."
In January 2011, another friend asked me, "What would you do if Mike walked into the room with someone else?" I thought, "That could never happen." I'd always had a torch for Mike and asked him for a serious conversation.
We opened up about our feelings and became an item again. We got married in 2022. It was a big country wedding — something that, I guess, I'd always wanted. Formalizing our relationship, gave us peace and security. I didn't even have to change my name because both our last names are Jones — a family name that is very common in Wales.
My husband had grounded me. I used to go to glitzy award shows, but now I can't think of anything worse. I'd rather spend my weekends at a country show wearing rain boots. I often talk about the change in my perspective in my job as a public speaker.
Mike, who runs his own business, busies himself by cleaning out animal sheds, digging ditches, and mowing fields. He showed me the importance of spending time in nature, getting your hands dirty, and embracing who you are. He has a famous saying: "Life is simple, humans make it difficult."
People sometimes ask if we regret our time apart. It's absolutely not the case. It's shaped the way we are and made us live in the moment.
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