womansweekly.com 13
REAL LIFE
Sarah’s messages
are so personalMeeting in 2000, and
the china box (below)
Sarah gave her friendWORDS: JANET TANSLEY. PHOTOS: MARSHA PORTER/COPY MEDIA, PA
with 500 million other royal
fans worldwide, they tuned
in to watch Prince Andrew
marry Sarah Ferguson, and it
was then Elaine realised there
may be more to their passing
encounter, after all.
When, feeling sympathy for
Sarah following her divorce
and the negative press
surrounding it, she decided to
reach out to her in 1999, she
hardly expected a reply.
What she received took her
entirely by surprise. Not only
did the Duchess of York
confirm she was the teenage
waitress, she went on tothank Elaine for stirring up
so many happy memories.
You will never know the
effect your letter had on me!
she wrote. I was indeed the
girl who served you in the
Squaw Valley coffee shop all
those years ago, and I am so
pleased you wrote to tell me
about our meeting. It has
brought back so many
memories of a time long since
gone – how times change!
That letter was the first of
many, confiding in each other
regularly about family
experiences as well as their
work as Sarah went on, likeElaine, to forge a
career as an author.
The Duchess also sent
Elaine gifts, including a ‘Sarah’
doll, produced to raise
money for children, her 2012
children’s book Ballerina
Rosie, and a china box –a
memento of Prince William
and Kate Middleton’s 2011
wedding. Sarah has alsosent
her friend many photos taken
by herself, with handwritten
inscriptions, along withlittle
thoughtful English treatssuch
as tea and biscuits.
They’ve met in person
twice, first in September
2000, after Sarah appeared
on the Good Day Sacramento
TV show when she wasanambassador for Weight
Watchers and invited Elaine
to tea, then a few years later
when the Duchess made a
speech on women’s health in
neighbouring Roseville and
they shared tea again.
Although there is more
than 30 years between the
two, Elaine says she and the
Duchess have so much in
common, not least their life
philosophy of ‘don’t tell me
I can’t do it!’ she laughs.
While her royal pen pal has
been busy writing more than
40 books, promoting Weight
Watchers, working in TV and
supporting charities, Elaine
has enjoyed her own success.
Her story about Olympic
president Avery Brundage
was turned into a TV mini
series in the US, and in 2007
she published her memoir
The Healing House.
But despite their busy lives,
and the distance between
them, their closeness is
clear in Sarah’s letters,
which are often signed
Dearest Elaine, and
closed with special love.
They all mean so
much, she says, but one
in particular reveals the
unique relationship
between the pair.
Having shared her
granddaughter’s battle with
breast cancer with Sarah, her
friend wrote back...
I am always here for you
and your family, dearest
Elaine. All these years we
have been together...Atgoodall
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