Sheilagh and Peter Head.

TWA pilot Peter Head and his wife Sheilagh, one of Bermuda's top artists, have been married for 23 years. They moved to Bermuda the same year they were married. Peter, from Atlanta, and Sheilagh, from near Manchester in England, first met in New York in 1965 when they both worked for TWA. The couple have a son and a daughter.

Peter: When we first met, Sheilagh and I were in the same business. I was a pilot on TWA and Sheilagh was a flight attendant. She was a starving artist then and she had found a way to travel. The first time we met, I was flying a New York to Washington flight and back. We flew the hour and a half and then instead of going with the rest of the crew, I decided to go an see some old Navy friends. I had flown in the Navy for five years before I joined TWA.

Anyway I didn't expect to see the crew until the flight was leaving. When I got to the gate the next day, none of the crew were there. I waited, but they didn't show up. I boarded all the people, I did everything. They finally showed up - they had gone sightseeing and had lost track of time. I wasn't happy. We didn't see each other until a year later. It was after the second meeting that we started to date.

We got married in 1970 in England. My best man at our wedding is married to Sheilagh's best friend. Anyway, they were living in Bermuda when we married and they said to come down. We came here on our honeymoon and we decided we really liked it here and that we would stay and live here. Sheilagh quit working for the airline in 1970 and we had our first child a year later.

I try to fly five or six days at a time and then I'm home four or five days between trips. When I'm not working, I'm here. We travel a lot together. As long as we book far enough in advance, we can pretty well choose where we want to go. It's one of the perks of the job.

Sheilagh: I've been painting since I was three-years-old. I think I always knew I wanted to be an artist. I had gone to the Manchester College of Art and I spent a year in Italy. After college my father said, "What now?'' I had an interview with Pan Am, but I was told they wouldn't be hiring that year. I had heard TWA was hiring and I went for an interview and got a job.

After that first New York-Washington flight, Pete was furious and he didn't say a word to any of us the whole way back. The next time I met him was a year later on a flight from Madrid. I had to work a flight to Madrid and I was with a number of senior flight attendants who knew their way around Madrid. We decided to go out that first night and if you know Spain, nothing ever starts to get going until midnight. We stayed out all night and rolled back into the hotel at 6 a.m. I then got a call from TWA operations saying they were sorry but because I was the junior flight attendant I would have to make a flight that morning from Madrid, to Lisbon, to Santa Maria, to Boston and then to New York.

We changed cockpit crews in Lisbon. I remember I was sitting at the top ofthe stairs in the airplane between flights, when I saw this man - it was Pete - and I thought, "Oh God! not him.'' But it was great. When I got back to New York, it was snowing and I had this terrible sports car. I had been hauled in to my supervisor's office for not wearing my hat on the flight and then when I got out I thought, "My damn car is not going to start.'' He waited until I got it started and then followed me home to make sure I got there safely. We dated after that.

I think it works very well. I hate it when he's about to go. I'm like Charlie Brown with a grey cloud over my head, but then when he's gone I realise I can paint all night if I like. Yet when I go on trips with him, I'm in his world.

I'm always enormously impressed by what he does.

"I hate it when he's about to go,'' says Sheilagh Head of pilot husband Peter. "But then I realise I can paint allnight if I like.'' SEPTEMBER 1993 RG MAGAZINE