FordeFables
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      • No Need to Look for Love
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        • The Tannery Wager
        • 'Fini and Archie'
        • 'The Love Bridge'
        • 'Forgotten Love'
      • The Priest's Calling Card >
        • Chapter One - The Irish Custom
        • Chapter Two - Patrick Duffy's Family Background
        • Chapter Three - Patrick Duffy Junior's Vocation to Priesthood
        • Chapter Four - The first years of the priesthood
        • Chapter Five - Father Patrick Duffy in Seattle
        • Chapter Six - Father Patrick Duffy, Portlaw Priest
        • Chapter Seven - Patrick Duffy Priest Power
        • Chapter Eight - Patrick Duffy Groundless Gossip
        • Chapter Nine - Monsignor Duffy of Portlaw
        • Chapter Ten - The Portlaw Inheritance of Patrick Duffy
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        • Chapter One - The Portlaw Runt
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        • Chapter Four - Tony and Mary
        • Chapter Five - The Portlaw Secret
      • The Oldest Woman in the World >
        • Chapter One - The Early Life of Sean Thornton
        • Chapter Two - Reporter to Investigator
        • Chapter Three - Search for the Oldest Person Alive
        • Chapter Four - Sean Thornton marries Sheila
        • Chapter Five - Discoveries of Widow Friggs' Past
        • Chapter Six - Facts and Truth are Not Always the Same
      • Sean and Sarah >
        • Chapter 1 - 'Return of the Prodigal Son'
        • Chapter 2 - 'The early years of sweet innocence in Portlaw'
        • Chapter 3 - 'The Separation'
        • Chapter 4 - 'Separation and Betrayal'
        • Chapter 5 - 'Portlaw to Manchester'
        • Chapter 6 - 'Salford Choices'
        • Chapter 7 - 'Life inside Prison'
        • Chapter 8 - 'The Aylesbury Pilgrimage'
        • Chapter 9 - Sean's interest in stone masonary'
        • Chapter 10 - 'Sean's and Tony's Partnership'
        • Chapter 11 - 'Return of the Prodigal Son'
      • The Alternative Christmas Party >
        • Chapter One
        • Chapter Two
        • Chapter Three
        • Chapter Four
        • Chapter Five
        • Chapter Six
        • Chapter Seven
        • Chapter Eight
      • The Life of Liam Lafferty >
        • Chapter One: ' Liam Lafferty is born'
        • Chapter Two : 'The Baptism of Liam Lafferty'
        • Chapter Three: 'The early years of Liam Lafferty'
        • Chapter Four : Early Manhood
        • Chapter Five : Ned's Secret Past
        • Chapter Six : Courtship and Marriage
        • Chapter Seven : Liam and Trish marry
        • Chapter Eight : Farley meets Ned
        • Chapter Nine : 'Ned comes clean to Farley'
        • Chapter Ten : Tragedy hits the family
        • Chapter Eleven : The future is brighter
      • The life and times of Joe Walsh >
        • Chapter One : 'The marriage of Margaret Mawd and Thomas Walsh’
        • Chapter Two 'The birth of Joe Walsh'
        • Chapter Three 'Marriage breakup and betrayal'
        • Chapter Four: ' The Walsh family breakup'
        • Chapter Five : ' Liverpool Lodgings'
        • Chapter Six: ' Settled times are established and tested'
        • Chapter Seven : 'Haworth is heaven is a place on earth'
        • Chapter Eight: 'Coming out'
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        • Chapter Ten: ' The murder trial of Paddy Groggy'
        • Chapter Eleven: 'New beginnings'
      • The Woman Who Hated Christmas >
        • Chapter One: 'The Christmas Enigma'
        • Chapter Two: ' The Breakup of Beth's Family''
        • Chapter Three: From Teenager to Adulthood.'
        • Chapter Four: 'The Mills of West Yorkshire.'
        • Chapter Five: 'Harrison Garner Showdown.'
        • Chapter Six : 'The Christmas Dance'
        • Chapter Seven : 'The ballot for Shop Steward.'
        • Chapter Eight: ' Leaving the Mill'
        • Chapter Ten: ' Beth buries her Ghosts'
        • Chapter Eleven: Beth and Dermot start off married life in Galway.
        • Chapter Twelve: The Twin Tragedy of Christmas, 1992.'
        • Chapter Thirteen: 'The Christmas star returns'
        • Chapter Fourteen: ' Beth's future in Portlaw'
      • The Last Dance >
        • Chapter One - ‘Nancy Swales becomes the Widow Swales’
        • Chapter Two ‘The secret night life of Widow Swales’
        • Chapter Three ‘Meeting Richard again’
        • Chapter Four ‘Clancy’s Ballroom: March 1961’
        • Chapter Five ‘The All Ireland Dancing Rounds’
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        • Chapter Seven ‘The All Ireland Ballroom Latin American Dance Final.’
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        • Chapter Fourteen
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        • Author's Foreword
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        • Chapter Two
        • Chapter Three
        • Chapter Four
        • Chapter Five
        • Chapter Six
        • Chapter Seven
        • Chapter Eight
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        • Chapter Thirteen
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        • Chapter Twenty-One
        • Chapter Twenty-Two
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February 2nd, 2015.

3/2/2015

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Picture
Thought for today:
"Today I will spend seven hours in Airedale hospital receiving my blood transfusion which I need every three weeks following my six-month cancer treatment period. Given my terminal condition, this regular boost effectively keeps me alive and kicking from month to month. The past week has been a more difficult one for me than usual. My blood count has been down, I've been lacking oxygen and I have been more tired than I normally am and less able to walk. I have this past week felt my age and one of the important things I overlooked was to get my younger sister Eileen and her husband John a wedding anniversary card to celebrate their 51st year of married life together, yesterday.


And yet, despite any medical difficulties of the past year, along with the occasional memory loss that all septuagenarians are prone to, I tell you most truly that I am happier today than I have ever been before with my lot in life. 


I was fortunate when I found Sheila four years ago, to find the love of my life in my final years, and more fortunate still, to persuade her to marry me. Knowing her, loving her and being married to her are the best experiences of my life. She enables me to continue to be myself and is without doubt my 'best' and my 'last' love. During these recent years. I have found that old age can  bring forth a happiness without care when it is shared with the one you love.

How happier then it must be to wear the 'triple crown' and the find in your 'first' love your 'best' and your 'last' love, as did my sister Eileen. And what nicer saying is there to hear as one approaches their twilight years than the invitation from her husband John,' Grow old with me; the best is yet to come.'

Perfect love may come into one's life by accident, but it stays there on purpose. It only needs to touch you once in order to last a lifetime and once present, there is no need to concern oneself with 'happy endings', as true love has no ending. 


My sister Eileen married when I was out in Canada and she was no more than a mere eighteen years old. If my recollection is accurate, I was aboard a plane at the time going through turbulent weather conditions on my way to the USA. I suppose that marriage into old age is akin to flying through a storm. Once aboard there is nothing you can do, but sit back and enjoy the ride.

My mother used to remind me when I was a young man and preparing to go out for the night with some new girlfriend who I was besotted with, that however much I grew to love this girl, she would always come second best. She would look into my eyes as she fashioned my tie into a Windsor knot and say, 'Billy,  a man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best and his mother the longest and it is only in your mother's love will you find your first, last and best love!' 

Come to think of it, I am reminded of this self evident truth by my sister Eileen who I have frequently turned to for marital advice over the years ( having been twice divorced). Eileen has told me on more than one occasion that she was John's sweetheart before she became his wife, and she only recently confided in me that over the past thirty years of their fifty-one-year-old marriage, she has gradually grown to mother him more and more!


You know, people don't stop pursuing dreams because they grow old. I think it is more likely that they grow old when they stop pursuing dreams! A couple's marriage is as young as their faith in the future and as old as their doubt in the past. Whenever I look at my sister Eileen, I see a woman who has few regrets or any doubt that she married the right man over half a century ago. She impresses as being a person who is now growing old gracefully and is content to leave her youth behind as having been a time well spent. When I look at her husband John, I know I am looking at a good man who has always loved his wife and will stay in love with her until and beyond the grave.

In an age where few vows remain sacrosanct any more and many are often spent before they are truly tested, Eileen and John are a credit to the union of marriage between a man and a woman. As your older brother, I wish you both belated wedding anniversary wishes as I nip out for a few pints to toast your union. I love you both." William Forde: February 2nd, 2015.


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