The reunion
My Dearest Helen,
Here we are in each other's arms at long last, settling into our home, we can't stop talking about our lives and especially those three very precious years we spent together over 65 years ago in the 1950s. We cuddled together when my three-wheeler spluttered to a stop on our way home from Chesterfield College of Art and I would ring my Dad to tow us home. What a good excuse that made to have a lingering kiss, although at times it could be a cold wait!
We got engaged and planned to get married when you were 19 but your parents objected to me, forbidding you to ever see me again. I don't think we knew then how our love would live on. Three years passed before we met again by chance. For your 21st birthday your grandfather bought you a new car and we made a date to meet for a drive the following day. But you never turned up. I was heartbroken but later found out you had discovered I was engaged to someone else, which had broken your heart.
As I seemed unavailable, you had no option but to look elsewhere. A dashing corporal in the Canadian Air Force swept you off your feet and you married him.
A long period of 35 years with the wrong partners ensued but fate still wasn't on our side because at almost the same time, our spouses died and we both married again.
Decades later, quite by chance, you came across a man with my second name, who turned out to be my son. With the help of your daughter you were able to make contact with me, after a wait of 65 years!
My second wife Margaret had recently suffered a fatal stroke and my grief was understood by you when we met some months later. Gradually we both realised we felt the same love we had retained in our hearts for all those years and went ahead with plans to have a quiet wedding last November.
Our home is full of photographs featuring our separate lives and I can't help feeling pangs of envy when I see you as a beautiful lady, happy in another's arms. But you are finally all mine now and you make me very happy. You are still the elegant lady I have always loved. There's a lot of work needed on our small bungalow and quite soon when finished, it will become the love nest of our dreams. We will spend our limited future together very much in love and although we will always regret the circumstances that kept us apart in 1956, we are happy together for ever.
The arranged marriage
My Dear Kam,
Before I met you, love hadn't been all it was cracked up to be. Life before had knocked me down, then just as I picked myself up, it tripped me at a bend. An innocuous phone call led to the discovery that my then-husband was involved with someone else.
An idyllic wedding had not turned into the marriage I expected and now I was lonely. So lonely that loneliness became a thing. It sat with me at work and followed me home at the end of each day. I'd speak to the birds when no one could see, and stare at the bark of twisted old trees. And all the friends in the world couldn't fill the void it formed in me.
Each day I'd walk about, waiting for that lightning strike. An electric shock. Love at first sight. Hoping it would happen to me, perhaps even while shopping at the local Sainsbury's.
But nothing. I realised then that stars aren't obliged to align to make our dreams come true.
And so, on holiday with Mum to see my gran in Pakistan, I caved, mustered all my courage, challenged the views I held about arranged marriage and agreed to marry you. This man I hardly knew. It wasn't love at first sight, but I really liked the thought of you. Your kind eyes, the smile that drew me in. I ditched my search for lightning bolts and everything began to change. Now I can see that marrying this way was the best decision I would ever make.
One year in we were told we couldn't have a baby. Had we considered a pet instead, asked the grey-faced doctor? You took me in his arms and, with heartbroken eyes, said we would be OK. That it didn't matter if it wasn't meant to be.
When I was hurt by those closest to me, it was you that made me see straight. You showed me that I already have all the love I could ever need.
We've had joy-filled times when we've danced the jive right in the middle of our living room: the news I was pregnant, the birth of our sons and an amazing book deal with my publishers.
Then last year, I faced the toughest test of all. My dear Mum passed with me at her side after weeks in the intensive care unit. Each day and night, you held me tight, tears from your eyes mingling with mine.
So what I'm trying to say to you, is that love may not be a flash of lightning, a six-pack or stubble that makes for perfect chemistry. Stars are not obliged to align to make our dreams come true. Except. Sometimes they do.
Love from Hina
BBC