Love me tender

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It was a difficult start for this couple, but 30 years later, Karl and Lesley Willott are toasting the car accident that taught them to never give up. By Josephine Brouard.

The first thing you notice about the Willotts is that they laugh a lot. To this Adelaide couple, a chuckle is worth a thousand words. Ask them what makes their relationship gel and a poker-faced Karl says, “Better the bugger you know,” and roars with amusement. Lesley grins conspiratorially.

“A sense of humour is very important to both of us,” she says. “That, and just being the best of friends.”

They agree that having things in common is another important factor and, in their case, this means a love of music. To Lesley’s mild dismay, Karl is a bit of an Elvis fan, but both appreciate the groove of soul music, especially Motown.

Both also relish movies, the theatre and eating out. The sociable pair first met in Perth, Western Australia, at a local pub’s ’Poms’ Night‘. It was 16 August 1976, the very day, Karl points out, that Elvis was to die a year later. Karl and Lesley immediately “fell in lust” upon seeing each other – was it Karl’s slim hips in those flared bell-bottoms or Lesley’s irrepressible smile? Whatever it was, the two were instantly smitten and, although both were in relationships at the time, they instantly bonded over pints as they identified each other’s British accents. Lesley comes from Leicestershire and Karl is from Manchester, and the couple discovered that each had immigrated to Australia with their family at the age of 16.

Before they knew it, Karl was nonchalantly asking Lesley out for dinner – “no strings attached” – and Lesley accepted. As it transpired, Lesley was in Perth to join a boyfriend she’d met on a recent backpacker tour of Europe. “But within days of meeting Karl, he was buying me eucalyptus oil for my bad head cold and I was thinking how sweet he was,” says Lesley. “Mind you, it helped that I found him incredibly attractive. He was the consummate ‘70s guy: long blond hair, close-cropped beard, tight Staggers jeans and shaggy embroidered yak-skin coat. What wasn’t there to love?”

Within weeks of meeting, Lesley and Karl ended their other relationships, declared their love for each other, set a date to marry – 8 January, which, coincidentally, was Elvis’ birthday – and made plans to settle in Adelaide, where Lesley’s family lived. “We pooled our cash and bought a lovely old Toyota Crown, and prepared to make the long drive from Perth to Adelaide in October to meet Lesley’s family,” Karl recalls. “My parents were in shock; it all happened so quickly,” Lesley adds.

In a whirlwind two days, and in collaboration with Lesley’s mildly amazed parents, the couple finalised their wedding plans and returned to Perth to pack up their lives before heading for Adelaide in time for Christmas and the wedding. There wasn’t enough money for an engagement ring; instead, Karl and Lesley pooled their salary to buy new tyres for their car before setting off on the final trip home to South Australia.

And that’s where the whirlwind love story temporarily unravels. “A few hours outside Adelaide, we had a freak car accident on the stretch between Wudinna and Kimba,“ says Lesley. “We’d noticed a lot of red dust along the way spiralling in the paddocks, lifted by small whirlwinds known as willy-willies. A very strong willy-willy suddenly hit our car side on and I couldn’t reach the throttle switch because of my seatbelt. In a panic, I hit the accelerator by mistake and the car rolled. Karl and I were spun repeatedly as our belongings flew out of the car windows. Eventually, the car came to a stop on its side with me trapped behind the steering wheel. I lost consciousness.”

When Lesley came to, she was in a light aircraft being flown to Royal Adelaide Hospital for treatment. Karl had a black eye, but was otherwise unhurt. Lesley’s pelvis, however, was broken, the blood vessels in her eyes had burst, and she had other superficial injuries. Graver still, in their estimation, was the fact they were expected to walk up the aisle in three weeks.

Lesley insisted on calling her family from hospital herself. She was wheeled on a gurney to the phone, still attached to monitors and a drip, and broke the bad news. “I didn’t want my family to panic,” she says simply. At that stage, Lesley and Karl didn’t know that Lesley’s grandmother had flown in from the UK specifically for the wedding; their family was unaware that Lesley and Karl’s car was a write-off.

“I was told by my doctors to cancel our wedding as, according to them, I needed to lie flat and let my broken pelvis heal. I remember thinking there was no way I was going to cancel it. I was very determined we would go ahead – I was so in love.”

Sure enough, three weeks later, Lesley hobbled up the aisle (with a pair of crutches close by, just in case) to make her marriage vows, most of her injuries covered by a high-necked, handkerchief-hem wedding dress that was immensely fashionable at the time.

“We went on honeymoon to Victor Harbour [south of Adelaide] in a borrowed car and I fainted on the first romantic stroll we took together as husband and wife.”

They smile broadly at the recollection, but their smiles belie what proved to be a trying time. It took Lesley two years to completely heal from her wounds – and to pluck up the courage to climb behind the wheel of a car again. She also felt the legacy of her car accident when she gave birth to her daughters, Sarah and Clare, in 1980 and 1983 respectively. Both were born by Caesarean as a result of Lesley’s injuries to her pelvis. Clare’s birth in a small rural Queensland hospital was traumatic, with a labour lasting 18 hours and medicos fearing Lesley might die.

“They didn’t realise the extent of my determination,” says Lesley, as she and Karl relive her blinding pain and vomiting, a last-minute drive from Caloundra to Nambour for an emergency Caesarean and, finally, after the hubbub and hysteria had died down, Clare’s birth, culminating in a photo in the Nambor Times as ’Baby of the Week‘. Karl and Lesley shrug their shoulders in bemusement at the recollection of that crazy week.

“I think all those difficult things that happened so early in our relationship were a blessing,” says Lesley. “It made us strong and resourceful and gave us both the opportunity to show each other what we’re made of.” Karl nods in agreement. “I’d be lost without her,” says Karl. “She knows how much I love her.”

Karl and Lesley had no idea that the rocky start to their married life would get a whole lot rockier. “After a few years of living in Adelaide, we made the decision to move to Queensland to start a milk bar and fish and chips business in Caloundra on the beautiful Sunshine Coast,” Karl explains.

“I’d been working as a motor mechanic while Lesley worked in office administration, and we both felt like a change.” He shivers at the memory. “After two years, our lease ran out and a developer took it over. We were diddled.”

Lesley’s face grows pained as she remembers the efforts she and Karl went through to fight the case in court. “We didn’t have the resources to take on the developer. He knew what he was doing – we were just minnows getting in his way.”

In their modest attempt at entrepreneurship, the Willotts lost everything and had to start, literally, all over again. With no money, house or job, the couple and their two small children prepared to resettle in Adelaide, and it was during this time they discovered who their real friends were. “When you lose money and go through something like we did, it’s quite interesting to see who comes through for you – and who doesn’t,” says Lesley.

“Some people are truly afraid you’re going to ask them for something they cannot – or do not – want to give you. A lot of people simply turn their backs on you, while others turn out to be surprisingly compassionate.” Karl and Lesley asked close friends to book them into a caravan park for a fortnight so they would have somewhere to stay until they could find jobs.

“To our amazement, our close friends couldn’t even do this small thing for us,” Lesley recalls. “Fortunately, a former colleague, who I barely knew, came forward and offered us accommodation in her home until we found our feet.”

The rest, as they say, is history, but Karl and Lesley will never forget their relationship’s difficult first years. Both are convinced the hard times have contributed to the strong bond they share today. They even took Australian citizenship in 2004 as a tribute to the happy times they’ve shared in their new country.

“We celebrated our 30-year wedding anniversary this year and we couldn’t be happier,” says Lesley, as she cuddles her husband. Both she and Karl are looking forward to moving into a new home they’re currently building, having downsized now that their girls, Sarah and Clare, are making their own way in life.

“Life is good,” this cheerful couple agree as they stroll through a park near their home. “We’re looking forward to hitting the road again in our retirement,” adds Lesley. “We want to travel all over Australia for a year in a caravan – just me, Karl and the open road.” Their eyes light up in anticipation, all memories of willy-willies in the past as they fix their gaze firmly on the future.

Photography: Andrew Lehmann. Hair & make-up: Luana Coscia.