"To my wonderful wife, I wish you a happy birthday. May your special day be filled with much happiness, love, peace and generosity.
When I first saw you,Sheila, I was afraid to meet you. When I met you I was afraid to kiss you and when I kissed you, I was afraid to love you. Now that I love you, I am afraid to lose you. You have beguiled and bewitched me with your look of love. I am mesmerized by your presence in my life, seduced by your enduring sensitivity and concern, enticed by your charm, ensnared by your brain and inner beauty and entrapped by your unstinting generosity of faith in me.
When I look into your eyes I see everything I ever needed. You are more than what I need, you are what I want. Without you there is no me; without you there is nothing out there for me to come home to at the end of the day and for the rest of my life. That is what you mean to me; that and much more than words can ever describe.
A very happy birthday, Sheila. You still look as beautiful as the day when we first met on Haworth Main Street. When you approached me and said, 'You'll do, I'll have you!' you left me breathless and I've been breathless ever since with my good fortune that our hearts, minds and souls fused into one enduring love that even death will not separate. I love you Sheila Forde xxx." William Forde: November 29th, 2015.