When Tom Met Moira...

Last year, we received an email from Tom Kenney in Canada; not just an email… but a love letter, straight from the heart.

Tom’s email began: “I first had Highland Park one night, a little over two years ago, when I had my first date with Moira, the woman who is now my fiancé. I fell in love… with the woman and the whisky.” Tom went on to tell us about meeting his future wife’s family and the great warmth and kindness they showed him; and he told us of his bond with Moira’s father, Brian Muir, who had passed his own love of Highland Park down to his daughter. Tom revealed how delighted he was to discover that the roots of the Muir family’s passion for our whisky ran deep and, many decades ago, that Brian’s grandfather had actually been a farmer in Eday, here in Orkney –  “So you see… it is part of who they are, and where they come from, and you can see that pride whenever we share a dram,” Tom told us.

Tom explained that as wedding preparations got underway, he and Moira started planning their honeymoon in Scotland, touring whisky distilleries. It became a great family joke that Brian would gatecrash the honeymoon to join a distillery tour to Highland Park. But then, Tom told us, tragedy struck. Brian became seriously unwell and was diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer. As Tom wrote, Brian was responding well to treatment but it was still unclear whether he would be able to attend the wedding and walk his daughter down the aisle. What was abundantly clear, however, was that with the added complications of the COVID-19 pandemic, the planned trip to Scotland (with or without the gatecrasher!), simply couldn’t take place. Tom wrote: “Since we may not make it to Highland Park, I want to ask if you can bring Highland Park to us. I want to bring a piece of my family’s history and pride to be part of my wedding. I don’t expect anything, but if you could find a way to help, I know it would mean the world to me and the Muir family, here in Canada.”

Our steely Viking hearts melted and we immediately dispatched a bottle of Highland Park 21 Year Old to the Muir family to honour the love that binds their family together and the place that our whisky has in their lives. A few weeks later, we were delighted to hear from Tom again and to see that Highland Park did indeed play its part at the wedding, which took place on 26^th September 2020 at the Muir acreage in Grande Prairie, Canada… and, most of all, we were thrilled to see Brian there too. Skål Kenney and Muir families!

“Words cannot express our thanks for the kindness you have shown us… a picture is worth a thousand words and I hope you know just how special it was for us to have Highland Park as part of our wedding celebration. I hope you know just how many memories have been made because of you and how treasured those memories are. We take great pride in knowing that Highland Park was part of our wedding and has been such a big part of our family and lives.”