It Could Happen To You Connie Copeland And Graham Mallison Found Each Other, And Love, Across The Atlantic

It’s the North Side’s own version of a Taster’s Choice commercial - a love story with a soap opera script.

Customers at a Five Mile Plaza packaging store where it all unfolded are following along like devoted fans.

It started a year ago as Connie Copeland watched her life crumble around her.

Struggling with a sticky divorce, forced to sell a business she worked to build, life seemed bleak.

Today, Copeland is floating on a fairy tale cloud, preparing to marry a handsome Royal Air Force officer and fly away with him to England.

“If there is anything we can give to people, it is the message that there is always hope. The best is still ahead,” says Copeland, 43.

The effervescent former owner of Mail Boxes, Etc. sits in the store office, her fingers intertwined with the fingers of her fiance, Graham Mallison, 45.

He can’t take his eyes off the smiling blonde who captured his heart.

She can’t take her eyes off him.

Customers drop in to buy stamps and offer the couple congratulations.

Doug Cameron, mailing a package, is swept up in the love story.

“I think it’s story-book, it proves love knows no bounds,” he says.

It started with a spur-of-the-moment decision last July.

Copeland’s best friend Beverley Schuck, who manages the Mail Boxes, Etc. that Copeland used to own, talked her friend into vacationing in England.

Copeland balked. She’d never been out of the country. Finally she gave in, racing against the clock for a passport. Her mother bought her the plane ticket.

There was no hint she was about to meet the man of her dreams, her best friend’s brother.

The moment the plane touched down in London they were whisked to a house in Kirkham to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Schuck’s parents.

In fairy tale fashion, Copeland was in the garden, meeting family, soaking up English atmosphere when her prince entered.

“I came around the corner into the garden … and I saw this woman with the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen,” says Mallison, his accent rich and thick, like Devonshire cream.

They were introduced and suddenly inseparable. The next three days were spent bowling, playing golf, and walking the English waterfront, their hands linked.

Then Mallison, also going through a divorce, had to leave.

Copeland promised she would find a way to return to England to see him again.

“I had no idea how I was going to pay for it,” she says.

As in all good love stories, a fairy godmother, this time in the form of British Airways, intervened.

The flight back home was overbooked and the airline crew asked passengers to give up their seats in exchange for a discount on their next trip to Europe. Copeland jumped at the offer.

Business and responsibilities kept Copeland tied to the U.S. until October. But the couple filled their days with letters and phone calls.

“I spent the money I saved on the airplane ticket on phone calls,” says Copeland.

Mallison wrote constantly. “On Connie’s birthday he sent her eight cards to be opened in sequence,” said Schuck. “Oh, and 24 roses.”

“Graham is so romantic,” gushes Copeland.

Schuck pretends to gag - this is her brother, after all.

When Copeland returned to England, the passion still burned. Mallison wined and dined her through London, they saw “Les Miserables,” toured cathedrals and museums.

“We have so much in common, it’s absolutely incredible,” says Mallison.

Then talk turned serious.

He proposed, she accepted.

Then came the hard part. He has 10 more years in the service, she has two teenagers in Spokane. One will live on his own, the other is moving in with his dad.

But being together is so “right.”

“I’m totally in love with this person, I’m going to spend my life with him,” says Copeland.

“It’s time for us now. This is our time,” adds Mallison.

They didn’t see each other again for seven months, until Mallison flew into Spokane for a week in June. He’ll be back to marry his bride Aug. 3 in Coeur d’Alene.

Then they’re off again, this time together. First stop is England for a family reception, then they’ll return to his base in Germany to make their home for the next two years.

Eventually they’ll settle for good in England.

“It’s just going to get better and better,” says Mallison.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos