I'm the luckiest man in the world...

My darling wife died last Friday.

For all our married life, she'd had to deal with Type 1 diabetes, and never even murmered about the task of keeping herself balanced and active!

When I first plucked up the courage to ask her out to a party - in fact, it was just a piss-up, a get-together a week after my rugby club had returmed from a tour in Holland, and the others thought we ought to compare notes and find out who made the worst mistakes, who'd 'scored' - that sort of thing...), We immediately bonded in a gorgeous way. We'd been on friendly terms for some years, and in fact, we first met on my birthday at another party in Winchelsea, and she was with an old chum from school back then! We often met up in the pub where her mum and dad worked their socks off to make their place the best pub in Rye, 'The Bell', and when she was at home during college holidays, we'd always sit and chat.

So times went on. There we were, a couple, living and loving, and we were an 'item' from then on! I was going to marry the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen and spoken to, and she said that was fine by her! God, I was so lucky being there at a time written in the heavens...!

We raised two beautiful daughters, found our haven in our village, and after retirememt, realised we had so much more time together, and that was just fabulous.

But her diabetic issues surfaced with a vengeance some time ago. On top of all that, she'd only recently been diagnosed with inoperable cancer and she began a decline which she fought daily, sadly having to admit defeat last Friday. 

I'm heartbroken, but know now, that she has no more issues and pain, and that the above picture, taken on the 21st October, 1972, shows how fortunate I was in marrying the most beautiful girl in the world!