Love

It was midday, a pleasant enough morning, and I was standing on the corner of Archway Road and Southwood Lane Road, Highgate with George Davis. He was one of my best friends, tall, very fit, a Rolling Stones fan, with ginger hair and an infectious laugh. We’d nearly finished early turn, and had stopped for a chat, and a look at the world. We were keen young policemen, fearless and willing to have a go at anything. At this time of day, about to leave work, we were more relaxed, and doing what young men like to do – looking at girls.

A small white Ford Escort estate stopped at the traffic lights, just in front of us, and the girl driver smiled in our direction. I walked round to the driver’s door, she wound down the window, I made some inane remark, and she laughed back in reply. I was smitten. A few days later found myself ten-pin bowling, with this gorgeous girl by my side.
We were playing in the last lane at the bowling alley, against the far wall. Not that it mattered; there was no one else in my world that day. We talked, laughed and played the game. Then came the moment when I fell in love, irredeemably and absolutely. Sue placed her hand on my left forearm, reached up and kissed me gently on the cheek. That was it. I fell in love, and have remained in love with this wonderful woman ever since.

Love comes in many forms, and my love for Sue was something of an obsession. I adored her, loved her, and wanted to spend all my life with her. Our friendship opened up my life, but my presence was, in time, to pull apart the plans she had for own life. It may be that my love for her was what finally tore us apart.
It may seem strange to write about the breakdown of a partnership in the same breath as its beginning, but that’s the way it has to be. Writing about this relationship is very painful. I wanted to make her happy, and worked hard to do so, but it’s impossible to make someone love you, and once passion whispers away into the ether it never returns. I had my chance, my time with Sue, and for that I will for ever be grateful. Our liaison produced two wonderful children, and now we have three beautiful granddaughters. Our separation brought extreme pain, and changed the direction of both of our lives irrevocably. Hopefully snippets of the seventeen years we spent together will appear elsewhere in this blog.