Jack Thornton: How I came to be in Hope Valley and Stayed
Five years later
My name is Constable Jack Thornton and I am a Mountie. My wife's name is Elizabeth Thatcher (now Thornton) the towns school teacher. Before I had married her, I was sent to Hope Valley formally Coal valley five years ago. I was not happy when I was first sent to protect the new school teacher now my wife and on very short notice. I was originally scheduled to take a post in cape Fullerton, but that was changed at the very last minute. I later found out it was her father a very wealthy man who had requested a Mountie be sent to protect and look after his daughter. I did not know this until after I introduced myself and she had told me her name when I had walked in on her while she was preparing lessons. We were both very upset and she claimed she did not need protection from me and could take care of herself. I thought on the other hand she had no business being in a town like Coal valley (now Hope Valley). We eventually accepted our new situation. As I got to know her more after a rough start we started to get along. I was not looking to fall in love, but I did and it was with her. Since then, I have never looked back on the decision I made to court her and stay in Hope Valley after demanding a change in post which was granted then I changed my mind because of her. As the years went by I eventually asked her to marry me and become my wife as I found that I could not see a future without her in my life.
When I first started to court the school teacher, we took things slow at first then with each passing year things became more romantic and even intense with our relationship. It took me four years and enough courage to ask her to marry me after one of her close friends from back east messed things up two years before I asked. I decided to wait after that since I wanted to make my proposal as romantic as possible and at just the right time without any interference from anyone. I had planned out everything with Abigail's help before I had to leave to join a huge fight going on up north, they needed everyone they could get to go to help and I had to go. Before I went, I proposed to my now wife Elizabeth using a candle lit pathway for her to help guide her way to follow to where I was waiting in front of the school house which I had built for her and where I had decided to pop the question since it was an important spot for both of us. She was so overwhelmed with happiness that I had asked her to marry me. We got married a few months ago and a year and half after I got back from the fight up north. She was happy I had come home alive and well as she had constantly worried about me and so we could start our life and future together. I was also happy and I now look forward to becoming a father as we are expecting out first child in a few months. I have also decided it was time to finally build a house for us on a piece of land I had brought four years before. I could not have asked for a more loving and understanding wife as I have found in Elizabeth as we start our life as a family and in Hope Valley a place we both love and want to stay.
~Jack Thornton~