January 5th

January 5th
Part of story – out of context.

This is a special day for MTL and me; twenty eight years ago today, we were reunited after a separation of thirty years. I agonised about what to wear – one can change the impression one gives so easily but in the end it was cold so I wore my mink coat – this was the seventies remember and I had earned it by hard work in my business. We met at Charing Cross Station and he was reading a newspaper – apparently absorbed as he had appeared to be when Maddie and I had met him at his college, decades earlier. We repaired to Eleanor’s bar in the Charing Cross Hotel where he was staying.  He had a gin and I had a scotch or two and we talked.

  Later we had lunch and he said I would find he didn’t talk very much and from then on I could hardly get a word in edgeways.
We walked down to the river, still talking, had tea and then went to his room to freshen up and continued chatting through the bathroom door whilst he had a shave and I powdered my nose.  All we did was talk; we had thirty years to catch up on.  Neither of us was hungry so we walked and walked and talked and talked until it was time for my last train.

At our meeting we had given each other an ‘old friend type kiss on the cheek’ and at the end of the evening we again exchanged an O.F.T.K.O.T.C but he hugged me and held me close and sighed and as I rested my head against his chest I felt a momentary panic.  We parted knowing that this was not an ending but a beginning.

We consider five to be our lucky number.  My home was number five and so was MTL’s as was his cottage in Yorkshire.  We had five children between us and on our fifth meeting, after our reunion. we plighted our troth.  Our wedding date the 23rd of November was chosen to incorporate our lucky number, worked out by Maddie. I remember thinking – if we could just have ten years - but one grows greedy with the years and twenty eight years have gone by in a flash. We have been very lucky.

I’ll fill in the details later when the story has progressed so try to stick with it.  We have had a lot of carousing lately so we’ll spend the day quietly, pottering at home having a smile and a moan – comme d’habitude.