However, one strange prediction gave him hope. He had a tarot reading from a girl at the public relations firm where he worked. In the course of the reading she identified a ‘Dark Princess’ who held the key to his future happiness. Peter had no doubt of the identity of the dark, feminine presence revealed in the cards.
Guided by the tarot, Peter was advised to pursue this challenge – but was warned that the ‘Dark Princess’ wanted a long-term, committed relationship. Anything less than total dedication to a joint union would be destined to failure. Peter accepted his mission and set off for America to conquer his princess.
Self-consciously, Peter admits he always felt it was amazing good fortune on his part that Siobhán fell in love with him and agreed to become his wife and mother to his children. ‘Even now I have to pinch myself to believe it,’ he says. ‘I always felt there had been some administrative error in the great celestial relationship record book which teamed her with me.’
For her part, Siobhán did not make it easy for her eager suitor.
Peter advances the theory that she deliberately misunderstood his intentions because she was protecting herself from future hurt and did not believe him capable of maintaining a mature and enduring relationship.
‘I had treated my long-term girlfriend Jo and a string of other women pretty shabbily,’ Peter admits. ‘Siobhán would make transatlantic phone calls, usually early in the morning, to berate me and urge me to change my ways. Somehow the fact she showed such interest convinced me that she must see some potential in me.’
Moving out of the house they shared in Telford, Peter and Jo split the proceeds of the sale of the house they had bought jointly. Peter, determined to make a fresh start, resigned from his job and packed his bags for America. ‘The official plan was for me to travel around America, but in reality I had made up my mind to try to persuade Siobhán to marry me,’ he says.
Siobhán invited him to stay at her New York apartment and the two spent quality time together socialising and getting to know each other away from the pressures of past relationships. Siobhán delighted in the fact that Peter proposed to her on the second date. While admitting it was probably true, Peter says it actually took him much longer to pluck up the courage – and risk what he felt was inevitable rejection.
However, he did buy an engagement ring – of sorts. He had been hanging around Siobhán’s apartment for weeks, while she gently hinted that it was time for him to move on and take to the road. Eventually she agreed to accompany him on the first stage of a planned trip to the Deep South. Peter, a skilled guitarist, had been anxious to make a musical pilgrimage, visiting the legendary home of country and western music, the blues and rock ’n’ roll. ‘Siobhán and I had taken a fantastic, adventure-filled road trip from New York to Tennessee,’ he says excitedly. ‘She then flew back to her teaching post at Columbia and I went on to New Orleans.’
During an extended stay in New Orleans he secretly bought a ring and determined to propose. ‘The ring was a pink tanzanite in a delicate, filigree setting. It wasn’t expensive but given my state of penury at that time, having been in America for almost six months and unable to work because of visa restrictions, it was a genuine and heartfelt gesture.’
Peter had moved back into Siobhán’s apartment and now was seriously in danger of outstaying his welcome. She urged him to hit the road again and explore other areas of America before his visa expired and he was legally bound to leave the country and return to England.
‘It was kind of embarrassing,’ he says, laughing at the absurdity of it all. ‘I wanted to marry her and she kept urging me to be on my way. Finally I knew I could put it off no longer, and put my master plan in place.’
He took her to the cinema to see Sea of Love, starring Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin, and on to what he thought would be a romantic dinner in a restaurant in a New York restaurant featured in the film. However, events did not turn out as planned. The restaurant, an Italian eatery, looked nothing like it had on screen.
‘The romantic setting I envisaged,’ he says ruefully, ‘was in fact a film set. In reality the restaurant was mediocre. I almost abandoned my grand plan. I had wanted something special and memorable – not memorable for being such a letdown.’
Brushing aside his disappointment, Peter decided to seize the moment anyway. As he tells the story, it sounds like Woody Allen trying to woo an elusive Diane Keaton: he full of doubts and angst; she confident, assured and faintly amused by his discomfiture.
As if in slow motion Peter can still recall the proposal frame by frame. ‘In my head I was down on one knee, proffering the open jewel box with the glittering betrothal ring and saying, “Will you marry me?”
‘Cut to Siobhán. Eyes sparkling, dazzled by the ring, thrilled by the longed-for proposal. Rewind… It did not quite play out that way,’ admits Peter wryly. ‘What really happened was that I pulled the ring out of my pocket with no preamble, thrust it at her and said, “I thought you might like this ring.”’
Siobhán wasn’t going to make it easy for Peter. Instead, without ceremony, she took the ring and hesitated before expressing an opinion. ‘Yes,’ she said cautiously, ‘I like it.’ Peter agonised as she toyed with the ring, seemingly contemplating whether to put it on the third finger of her left hand. He held his breath as she slipped the ring on to her engagement finger. Then she changed her mind and moved it to the other hand. Satisfied that it fitted the right hand, Siobhán carried on eating as if nothing had happened.
Peter never did pluck up courage to ask his Dark Princess to marry him. Gradually, though, as he prepared to return to England, an understanding was reached that he would go back and look for a house for them to move into together.
Siobhán was increasingly homesick and the failing health of her ageing parents worried her. She was ready to return home, take up a post at a British university and settle down with Peter.
The two married in the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Shrewsbury on 29 August 1992.
Siobhán was a radiant bride in a glamorous floor-length wedding gown with a Renaissance-style gold skirt and embroidered ivory bodice.
Surrounded by family and friends, the couple took their wedding vows and faced the future with the traditional unspoken wish that they would live happily ever after.
Early in 2007 the cancer returned. Siobhán travelled several times between Belfast and the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. Eventually her health deteriorated to the point where doctors insisted she was no longer fit to fly. Her treatment was transferred to Belfast City Hospital and her day-to-day care taken over by a local GP, Dr Susan McGarrity.
‘The notes and letter I received from the Marsden,’ says Dr McGarrity, ‘made it pretty plain that Siobhán’s disease was now terminal. There was really nothing more they could do for her. She had been apprised of the situation.
‘The Marsden proposed a series of treatment which would include radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but those would not halt the disease – only keep her comfortable.’
Siobhán had been warned that the disease was likely to spread to her brain and a course of radiotherapy was planned to slow down its progress. She did not live long enough to have this treatment, and thank God her mental faculties were not unduly affected.
Dr McGarrity remembers clearly the first time she went to visit Siobhán at her home in south Belfast. ‘Knowing the seriousness of her illness and the late stage she had entered, I was surprised to find her up and about.