The Letter

Now there are only fragments left, memories disintegrating like autumn leaves and answers always tantalisingly out of reach. The “if onlys” are the saddest things in the world.

We look for sense and we search for patterns or a grand design in the desperate attempt to make meaning out of what frightens us the most – the possibility that there is no meaning. Bad things happen to good people. Evil prospers. Young fit men get sick and die. Children starve. Teenagers are murdered in bomb blasts at music concerts. There is no reason or divine plan. Crap things happen. End of.

Sometimes the thing we long for the most is where we least expect it to be, there all along and simply waiting for us to recognise it.

The road can fork at any point. There are so many possibilities, aren’t there, and so many ‘what ifs’,

I think love comes in many different forms and I believe we can love more than once in our lifetime too.

Nothing happens by mistake, sweetheart, but by design. It’s just a matter of how we look at things.

I think we all make our mark in some way. OK, not everyone changes the world by landing on the moon or creating great works of literature, but we all make a difference.

things might hurt now, but at least I can feel).

I contemplate the strange nature of grief. Some people hide from it, others devote their entire lives to mourning, and the bravest get on with living. I’m not sure what category I fall into yet.

I realise that what seems to matter so much to us in the here and now is nothing in comparison to the sea and the rocks and the turning of the tides; we’re just tiny grains in the sands of time.

up at the ancient buildings built of pale Cotswold limestone and dusted with lichen. Latticed windows wink and sparkle, grey rooftops meet the bright blue sky, and more bicycles than

At that age they glow with a potential they won’t understand or even know they possess until it’s gone and too late.

a new Chloe is going to take shape. I don’t know her yet but it’s time I made her acquaintance.

Love has no limits. Love isn’t bound by time. And, ultimately, love is why we are all here today and why we carry on.