It was back in 1979, and I was in Newark, NJ, for a show. Actually, it was my first time exhibiting—in this case, with my collection of Grenada postal history. I was probably a bit nervous about being a novice exhibitor, especially when I met Patricia Stilwell. She was a veteran postal history exhibitor, but we managed to hit it off well enough to start seeing each other.
The rest, as you might say, is history. Because that chance meeting led to a marriage that has lasted more than 30 years.
It was definitely a philatelic wedding. The wedding cake was decorated with Grenadian postmarks from my collection and Irish postmarks from Pat’s. And to send us off on the honeymoon, our wedding guests tossed used stamp hinges instead of rice!
Editor’s Note: Dan Walker is the former owner of Collectibles Insurance Services. His collections have covered British Borneo, Romania and the Civil War era US Revenue stamps. He is best known for his research and published work on the West Indian island of Grenada. A winner of the American Philatelic Society’s Champion of Champions Award, he is now actively engaged in the collection and study of the Feudatory States of India, including multi-frame exhibits of Barwani and Soruth. In 2014, Dan was elected to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists, an honor conferred on just 369 philatelists in the world since the Roll was established more than 90 years ago.
