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While many spent Labour weekend out and about in the sun, expectant mum Melissa Chan-Green delighted in unearthing precious family heirlooms for her baby.
The Three news presenter, who is due any day now, took to social media to share an image of the baby shawl that had been knitted for her when she was born, saying “not long and my own bub will inherit this shawl”.
Her grandmother even still had the pattern, which appeared in a special 24-page Royal Baby Special supplement in The Australian Women’s Weekly in 1982.
Melissa, 36, wrote on Instagram, “Long weekend finds at Grandmas .. this 1982 mag with the pattern for a royal baby heirloom shawl knitted for me when I was born.
She commented that it was “crazy how life works that I then ended up reporting on Prince Williams wedding and the birth of his kids”.
In the year that Prince William and Kate Middleton married, which was 2011, Melissa was living and working in London as MediaWorks’ Europe correspondent.
She loved the lifestyle so much her tenure ended up lasting five years, and in that time she got to report not only on William and Kate’s wedding but also the births of their oldest two children, Prince George, in 2013, and Princess Charlotte, in 2015.
When a then 32-year-old Melissa returned to New Zealand in 2016 to take up a role presenting Newhub’s weekend bulletins alongside Tom McCrae she cherished the better work-life balance and chance to spend more time with family.
She told Woman’s Day at the time that she definitely felt more settled “but it’s not knitting and babies for me just yet!”
Oh, how the tables have turned.
In another delightful find that Melissa has shared on Instagram, Melissa also discovered four-year-old footage of herself interviewing her husband Caspar Green at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
“RWC flashback: to that time I ‘vox popped’ a dejected beardy English fan in London just after his team had been knocked out of the 2015 RWC ..not knowing that 4 years later he’d be my husband 😂 #rwc,” she wrote on Instagram.
Now that is uncanny.
Melissa met Caspar ‘properly’ at a Trivial Pursuit evening in London that same year. He was the quiz master. The pair hit it off but Melissa was due to return to New Zealand. They endured a long-distance relationship for 18 months and then Caspar moved to New Zealand to be with Melissa. They got married in March.
Happily, the couple discovered they were pregnant soon after arriving back from their Maldives honeymoon.
“It did happen quickly and I was definitely a bit surprised, but also really, really excited!” Melissa told Woman’s Day.
She and Caspar, 39, have kept the gender of their baby a surprise.
Either way, their little will have a very special shawl to be wrapped in, and no doubt a lifetime of happy coincidences to look forward to.
