My late husband I get married for the first time at fiftyfive. It has been five years since we held the wedding. Now I am sixty and he is sixtyfive. There is nothing strange about thatthese days anything can happen. The astonishing part is that this is my first marriage, and it is his first as well.
Imagine: I never intended to marry. Never! When I was under twenty, my boyfriend Peter left me, the man I loved with all my heart. He walked out when I was five months pregnant. At first I thought, Forgive me, Lord, I want to end my life. But I gather my resolve and swear never to marry. I do not want another rogue who will vanish at the first opportunity.
I keep that promise. My daughter Olivia grows up, marries, has grandchildren, and I, like a stubborn mule, bear a solitary life. Men do try to meet meoh, how they try! But my nature is that once I decide, I stay the course. Loneliness makes me hardhearted, not the kind of woman I imagined I would be.
Fate, however, is a trickster. I want to tell how a certain man finally manages to lead me to the altar
When I retire, like most retirees, I take up gardening. I inherit a modest cottage with a plot of land worth about £30000 from my parents. I ride the commuter train to get there. The journey takes a little over an hour, so I always bring a crossword magazinetime flies.
One day at the station a couple boards the carriagea husband and wife, clearly marriedalong with a short elderly man. At first everyone is silent. Then I hear the woman meekly say:
John, shall we stop by the grandchildren and help them? Youre their father
Her voice is drowned out by the mans booming laugh:
What are you, daft? Do you expect me to crawl around like a worm for those idiots?
He launches into a tirade at his wife and children. I involuntarily raise my eyesand freeze. It is Peter, the same one who abandoned me while I was pregnant. He is barely changed, only his features are more wrinkled and sour. Large, rough, just as before. Peter doesnt recognise me, but notices my stare and shouts:
Whats with that look? Turn away or Ill stare you to death!
I am paralyzed. Suddenly something unexpected happens. The small man opposite me rises decisively and steps between me and Peter:
If you keep abusing women, youll have to answer to me. A man who talks like that isnt a man at all, but a scoundrel. Ill twist you like a lambs tail!
I am frightened: Peter could easily crush him. Yet the man straightens, shoulders back, mutters something. And it hits me: before me stands not a hero but a coward who can only raise his voice at women. And Ithrough himhave spent my whole life breaking myself? Tears well up. Everything flashes like a fastforwarded filmthirty years in a few minutes.
Two stops later Peter and his wife alight, and I start to cry. An emptiness and bitterness flood my heart.
Even tears cant mar your beautiful face, says my protector with a smile. Now he no longer seems small. In front of me stands a real man. His name is Edward Bennett, a former soldier.
Thus we meet, and suddenly, for the first time in many years, I feel the desire to marry, to be a loved woman.
And it happens.
Edward and I are very happy. Life, it turns out, wisely puts things where they belong. Age doesnt matter. Even in the autumn of life love can arrive and bring true happiness.
