SHEILA AND I MET FOR THE FIRST TIME NINE YEARS AGO TODAY
Nine years ago, today, Sheila and I met in Haworth. We shared conversation and a coffee at Gascoigne’s which is now renamed Haworth Steam Brewery on Main Street and since our marriage in 2010, we have shared our lives together.
I won’t go extolling all the compliments I could possibly make about my wife’s character, as such will be only too well known by anyone who has the good fortune to know Sheila or who has read my daily posts over the years. Let me just say, consider all you think is commendable in an individual and marriage partner, and know that in Sheila, I have it in abundance.
There is a belief in the land of my birth (Ireland) that every good person who walks the road will pass good people coming the other way, as will men of little faith in humanity be more than likely to encounter suspicious travellers on their journeys. One of the first bible stories that stuck in my memory was the one about St Paul when he was walking from Damascus, having been converted to Christianity.
On his journey out, he met a traveller coming into Damascus. The traveller said to Paul, “Hello, stranger. I am going to Damascus where I intend to set up home. Can you tell me, what the people are like there? Are they friendly and good people?”
St Paul replied, “The town which you are leaving to come here, were the people of that place friendly and good people?”
“Oh, no! Not at all” came the response, adding, “I found the majority of them to be suspicious, uncharitable and unfriendly!”
St. Paul replied, “I’m afraid that you’ll find the people of Damascus the same as the town you’ve come from.”
Farther on, Paul meets another traveller coming into Damascus who asks him the very same question about the citizens of Damascus, where he plans to live. St. Paul asks the traveller the very same question as he asked the first traveller he met coming into Damascus.
“Oh, I must confess that I found most of the citizens from the town I have just left to be kind, charitable and good people. In fact, if my business would have allowed me to stay there, I would have been perfectly happy for the rest of my life.”
St. Paul replied, “I am sure that you will find the citizens of Damascus to be just like the people of the town you have just left.”
Back to my first meeting with Sheila on that fateful day, nine years ago. Despite it being a cold December day with a covering of snow on the ground as it is today in Haworth, meeting Sheila for that first time warmed my heart. It was evident that I was in the presence of a good person, and my only surprise was that nobody had snatched her up.
Sheila told me that she’d been widowed for three years, about the length of time that I had also been on my own after my wife had divorced me. In fact, each of us had concluded that there would be no more marriages or committed relationships. What fools we all are who think that we decide our fate! We may influence certain happenings in our lives for better or worse, but if we believe that there are no forces beyond our own thoughts, feelings and actions that determine our destiny, then we no longer possess the brains we were born with.
One merely needs to look at life all around us to know that there is a higher plan to all that we see. The way that the universe is constructed and the sheer changes in life produced as the earth rotates on its axis, the purpose of the sun, the moon and the stars, and the ecosystem that nature and all the creatures of the earth naturally embrace and thrive upon; all of this didn’t just happen. It was created by a force greater than that of mankind!
I am so glad that I found love again with Sheila and if I could share the happiness we share together with anyone in search of a lifelong partner and soul mate, I would, most gladly. One of the strangest things about our first meeting nine years ago is that nothing has changed about the way I physically saw Sheila then as I do today.
Sheila is blessed with possessing the facial bone structure of a beautiful woman and although she is 63 years old (14 years younger than me), she doesn’t look a day over fifty. And since she has adopted her ketogenic (low carb and healthy fat lifestyle) less than three months ago, she reports herself to be feeling more like a fifty-year-old than the 63 years she is.
I love you, Sheila Forde, and however long I live, I will never forget the very first time I saw your face. Bill xxx
Nine years ago, today, Sheila and I met in Haworth. We shared conversation and a coffee at Gascoigne’s which is now renamed Haworth Steam Brewery on Main Street and since our marriage in 2010, we have shared our lives together.
I won’t go extolling all the compliments I could possibly make about my wife’s character, as such will be only too well known by anyone who has the good fortune to know Sheila or who has read my daily posts over the years. Let me just say, consider all you think is commendable in an individual and marriage partner, and know that in Sheila, I have it in abundance.
There is a belief in the land of my birth (Ireland) that every good person who walks the road will pass good people coming the other way, as will men of little faith in humanity be more than likely to encounter suspicious travellers on their journeys. One of the first bible stories that stuck in my memory was the one about St Paul when he was walking from Damascus, having been converted to Christianity.
On his journey out, he met a traveller coming into Damascus. The traveller said to Paul, “Hello, stranger. I am going to Damascus where I intend to set up home. Can you tell me, what the people are like there? Are they friendly and good people?”
St Paul replied, “The town which you are leaving to come here, were the people of that place friendly and good people?”
“Oh, no! Not at all” came the response, adding, “I found the majority of them to be suspicious, uncharitable and unfriendly!”
St. Paul replied, “I’m afraid that you’ll find the people of Damascus the same as the town you’ve come from.”
Farther on, Paul meets another traveller coming into Damascus who asks him the very same question about the citizens of Damascus, where he plans to live. St. Paul asks the traveller the very same question as he asked the first traveller he met coming into Damascus.
“Oh, I must confess that I found most of the citizens from the town I have just left to be kind, charitable and good people. In fact, if my business would have allowed me to stay there, I would have been perfectly happy for the rest of my life.”
St. Paul replied, “I am sure that you will find the citizens of Damascus to be just like the people of the town you have just left.”
Back to my first meeting with Sheila on that fateful day, nine years ago. Despite it being a cold December day with a covering of snow on the ground as it is today in Haworth, meeting Sheila for that first time warmed my heart. It was evident that I was in the presence of a good person, and my only surprise was that nobody had snatched her up.
Sheila told me that she’d been widowed for three years, about the length of time that I had also been on my own after my wife had divorced me. In fact, each of us had concluded that there would be no more marriages or committed relationships. What fools we all are who think that we decide our fate! We may influence certain happenings in our lives for better or worse, but if we believe that there are no forces beyond our own thoughts, feelings and actions that determine our destiny, then we no longer possess the brains we were born with.
One merely needs to look at life all around us to know that there is a higher plan to all that we see. The way that the universe is constructed and the sheer changes in life produced as the earth rotates on its axis, the purpose of the sun, the moon and the stars, and the ecosystem that nature and all the creatures of the earth naturally embrace and thrive upon; all of this didn’t just happen. It was created by a force greater than that of mankind!
I am so glad that I found love again with Sheila and if I could share the happiness we share together with anyone in search of a lifelong partner and soul mate, I would, most gladly. One of the strangest things about our first meeting nine years ago is that nothing has changed about the way I physically saw Sheila then as I do today.
Sheila is blessed with possessing the facial bone structure of a beautiful woman and although she is 63 years old (14 years younger than me), she doesn’t look a day over fifty. And since she has adopted her ketogenic (low carb and healthy fat lifestyle) less than three months ago, she reports herself to be feeling more like a fifty-year-old than the 63 years she is.
I love you, Sheila Forde, and however long I live, I will never forget the very first time I saw your face. Bill xxx
