A story of how a trip to Grand Lodge was the beginning of a relationship that blossomed into marriage for Mark and Tanya.
In June 2022, West Lancashire Freemasons Mark Holloway and Martin Stewart travelled to London to attend the UGLE Quarterly Communications. Mark is the secretary of The Lodge of Chivalry No 3974 and Martin was the WM of Lodge of Chivalry at the time.
Unbelievably, the trains ran on time with Mark travelling from Wigan and Martin from Stoke-on-Trent. Mark had booked the tickets for both journeys. This was the first of many twists of fate that resulted in Mark meeting his future wife. Mark had not attended the Quarterly Communications before and booked the return journey home on a train scheduled to leave London Euston at 8pm, He then discovered, after booking the tickets, that the meeting would finish at around noon!
Quarterly Communications ended at lunchtime and Mark and Martin had lunch in Covent Garden, then looked around Covent Garden. With time to kill, they had a pint or two sitting in the sun outside the Prince of Wales pub and at 4pm they made their way to the Café in Great Queen Street to pass away an hour or so, until the Organ Concert which was starting at 6pm in the Grand Temple. Martin had booked in, after having found out that they had several hours to wait until their trains departed from Euston Station.
The Café was full of Freemasons and Mark and Martin waited a while for two seats to become free. Another of the many things that resulted in Mark meeting Tanya was that the senior warden of Lodge of Chivalry should have been with Mark and Martin, sadly he had not been well enough to make the trip so when a seat became free next to Mark, Tanya, who was the only lady in the Café, came over and asked if the seat was free. Of course, the absence of the senior warden meant that it was, and Mark and Martin invited her to join them. They started chatting and it transpired that Tanya had recently been initiated into Lodge Gordon No 49 that meets in Hanley Masonic Hall in Hanley, close to where Martin lives.
After chatting for an hour or so, Mark had learned that Tanya also had a ticket for the Organ Concert so he asked if Tanya wanted to sit with them, to which she replied she would be happy to do. During the course of the conversation Tanya had given Martin her card as she sang in Staffordshire Military Wives Choir so that Martin could contact her if he knew of a lodge in Stoke that would like them to do a concert for them. Tanya also gave Mark her card, but said that they would not be able to do a concert in West Lancashire (was there another reason for giving Mark her card?) Mark reciprocated and gave Tanya his card!
Arriving in the Grand Temple they were surprised to find that there were only around 40 people attending the concert. This did not spoil the enjoyment of the concert by Gerrard Brooks, who is a Professor of Organ at the Royal Academy of Music. The concert was greatly enjoyed by Mark, Martin and Tanya and the hour seemed to pass very quickly. As they left the wonderful headquarters of Freemasonry, they said it had been good to meet and Tanya said goodbye to Mark and Martin who hailed a cab and made their way to Euston Station.
Shortly after boarding his train Mark received a text from Tanya saying: “I hope we talk again; it was lovely to meet you and Martin. Thank you for sharing so much.” The rest is history for after nearly two years of seeing each other Mark married Tanya in April 2024, they held their wedding reception in O’Brien’s Tea Rooms which is on the ground floor of Ormskirk Masonic Hall and provides the catering services for the lodges that meet in the hall.
Tanya is now a master Mason and has joined Lodge Joyus No 18 that meets in Liverpool and is looking forward to enjoying her Masonic interests as does Mark.
Was a match made by the Great Architect of the Universe? Maybe, but the Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Street played a big part. Mark and Tanya look forward to a happy future together.