Elizabeth and her boss met Dennis in Albuquerque, where the congressman invited them to lunch the next day at his friend Shirley MacLaine's house in Santa Fe. While she was at MacLaine's, Elizabeth's phone rang. It was her mother, calling from England.
"Mum, you'll never guess who I'm having lunch with - Shirley MacLaine!" Elizabeth put the actress on the phone.
Julia Massey had read MacLaine's memoir, "Out on a Limb." After reading that book in the 1980s, Massey, who had worked as a secretary in London, decided to train to become a healer. She learned how to provide alternative therapies like massage and aromatherapy to clients with health problems. Eventually, she built a healing center called The Sanctuary next to the family cottage.
"I changed my life - my whole career - because of your book," she told MacLaine.
Later at lunch, the actress, a longtime friend of Dennis, invited Elizabeth and Zarlenga to stay overnight.
"Dennis and I stayed up, sitting by the fire, talking until half past 6 in the morning," Elizabeth recalls. They professed their love for each other; within a few days they decided to marry.