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After her husband’s betrayal, Frances Macaulay Forde swore off love and romance for good, until a long-lost stranger unexpectedly reappeared in her life. By Laura Venuto.





When Frances Macaulay Forde watched her boyfriend Paudie Coughlan perform on stage with his band, thinking, ‘God,
he’s gorgeous,’ she never expected their relationship would end. She also never expected that 30 years later she would be standing in the same position, saying the exact same thing, but with an altogether different ending.



It was December 1973 and Frances was a feisty, fiercely
independent 23-year-old living and working in a small city in
Zambia, Africa, and managing a local pop band in her spare time. A few weeks earlier she had been living in England, but decided to return home upon her brother’s advice. “Dennis visited me on his way back from a holiday in Perth and said to me: ‘Go home to Zambia, save some money and then go to Australia – and go straight to Perth. It’s the most amazing place.’”



Looking for a new adventure, Frances did just as her brother
suggested, and a few months later she was well on her way to
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buying that plane ticket… right up until Paudie walked through the door of a band practice to audition for the role of keyboard and rhythm guitar player. His soulful, shy eyes and deep, sexy voice had Frances transfixed. “I watched him play and that was it,” she says. “When you’re 23 you just fall madly in love, don’t you?” Before long, Paudie and Frances were going out and Frances’ plans for Australia went out the window. “Suddenly, I wasn’t thinking about going anywhere,” she says. Needless to say, their ensuing relationship was of the passionate intensity that comes
with youth. “I used to worship him,” says Frances with facetious exaggeration. “I’d stand there and watch him play guitar and just think: ‘You’re gorgeous!’. I wasn’t thinking marriage, but I’m an all or nothing person, and I knew I wanted Paudie forever.”



But unfortunately, as with many intense, young relationships,
it was also short-lived. About five months later, Paudie, who was just 21 at the time, confessed to Frances that things were moving too fast and he just wanted to be friends. “I was very young and I really didn’t want to get serious,” says Paudie. “And I knew it could get serious if I let it, but I thought that would be unfair.”


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