'Today is a double anniversary in the Forde household. I am celebrating my 76th birthday and Sheila Forde and I are celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary; having married on my 70th birthday. Despite a number of medical setbacks since our marriage, after a six-month honeymoon period, I was diagnosed with a terminal blood cancer. Since that diagnosis, I developed another two cancers and I am presently on the hospital emergency waiting list for another skin cancer operation on a malignant growth in both sides of my forehead. And yet, I can honestly say that since I met Sheila in 2010, and particularly since we married, the past eight years have been the happiest I have ever experienced.
I wish you a very happy sixth wedding anniversary, sweetheart, and just for today, I will sing you six songs; one for each of the years we have been happily married. Each song is special to me because it reflects the growing strength of our loving relationship. If others choose to listen to them also they are most welcome, but if not, it matters not, as I sing them just for you, Sheila.
I love you, Sheila and I know that we are blessed as a couple that we came into each other's lives when we were both in danger of giving up on finding lasting love with another partner. We had unconsciously placed ourselves at an emotional distance to others; essentially protecting the vulnerable parts of ourselves, and thereby making ourselves 'emotionally unavailable'. All this changed, however, after we first met. I knew as soon as I left you that first day I met you in Haworth that things would never be the same in my life again. We met and fell in love, and after a two-year courtship period, we married. Ever since that first day, my love for you has grown daily and I experience a depth of love that few men have been lucky enough to ever know in the autumn of their life. From the opening to the closing of my eyes daily, Sheila, you lovingly and unselfishly anticipate and fulfil my every need.
I am often asked, 'Bill, how can you remain so positive about life when you have a terminal blood cancer that will shorten it?' I reply, 'You don't know what it's like to be loved by someone the way that I am and to love somebody the way I do. I feel loved by Sheila, more than any man has ever felt loved. That's what makes it all possible; that's what it's like':
I wish you a very happy sixth wedding anniversary, sweetheart, and just for today, I will sing you six songs; one for each of the years we have been happily married. Each song is special to me because it reflects the growing strength of our loving relationship. If others choose to listen to them also they are most welcome, but if not, it matters not, as I sing them just for you, Sheila.
I love you, Sheila and I know that we are blessed as a couple that we came into each other's lives when we were both in danger of giving up on finding lasting love with another partner. We had unconsciously placed ourselves at an emotional distance to others; essentially protecting the vulnerable parts of ourselves, and thereby making ourselves 'emotionally unavailable'. All this changed, however, after we first met. I knew as soon as I left you that first day I met you in Haworth that things would never be the same in my life again. We met and fell in love, and after a two-year courtship period, we married. Ever since that first day, my love for you has grown daily and I experience a depth of love that few men have been lucky enough to ever know in the autumn of their life. From the opening to the closing of my eyes daily, Sheila, you lovingly and unselfishly anticipate and fulfil my every need.
I am often asked, 'Bill, how can you remain so positive about life when you have a terminal blood cancer that will shorten it?' I reply, 'You don't know what it's like to be loved by someone the way that I am and to love somebody the way I do. I feel loved by Sheila, more than any man has ever felt loved. That's what makes it all possible; that's what it's like':
The way that you have looked after me, Sheila, during difficult times has reflected the loving, caring and sensitive woman you are. While it may sound a tad selfish of me to say so, because we have become dependent on each other's presence and unqualified love of the other, we perhaps occasionally run the risk of living in a world of our own. When we married, Sheila, you welcomed me into your house and made it our home, and you welcomed me with open arms into your life. Today, sweetheart, 'Welcome to my world'; the world that you have made possible by converting my innermost dream into daily reality:
During our years together, Sheila, you have been a wife, lover, friend and soulmate to me; never once failing to displease or disappoint in any of these roles. These are the main reasons I love you, Sheila, though they barely scratch the surface of why I truly love you. I love you because you understand me better than any other human on this planet. You are ever present in my life, meaning more to me than the sun, moon and stars in the heavens as you gently turn me on your axis of love in this life of mine on earth. You soothe me with every touch, comfort me with every warm embrace, reassure me with the hold of your hand, kiss of your lips, smile on your face and the sound of your spoken word. My day could never start or end with purpose without you in it. You know how to lovingly get me to alter some of my inappropriate ways without offending my sensibilities; you are the seasons of all my change for the better. Whatever others might think or say about me, you never doubt me. In short; your laughter makes my heart lighter, your intrinsic goodness makes my days brighter and you hold the only key to unlock my door to happiness by simply being you. These are the reasons I love you, Sheila, because.......:
I remember with much fondness how you went 'Rock and Rolling' with me at a club in Batley for the first three/four years of our relationship. Even though you didn't know how to bop when we first met (having come from a family of classical singers, accomplished violinists and concert pianist), you nevertheless instantly recognised how important this kind of dancing was to me and made it a part of your weekly routine also. Sadly, after I contracted my terminal blood cancer I needed chemotherapy sessions for the better part of two separate years. That chemotherapy and my absence of any effective immune system led me to avoid all future crowds. However well we did or didn't dance together, sweetheart, I always felt the proudest person on that dance floor. I knew that I was partnered with the most attractive woman as my dancing companion for life; spun dizzy by our mutual love. Though my dancing days are now over, I am so glad, Sheila that you 'saved the last dance for me':
You always know the very best way to reassure and support me, sweetheart. A recent example was when the skin-cancer consultant who had operated on me a few months earlier to remove cancerous tissue from my forehead told me that the two biopsies he had sent off for analysis after my operation, unfortunately, revealed the cancer to be more malignant and invasive than initially feared. He had been unable to remove all the skin cancer in the last operation and would place me on the emergency hospital waiting list for another operation and attempt to excavate any remaining cancerous tissue from each side of my forehead, if possible before Christmas 2018. He also planned to raise my case for clinical discussion at a forum of skin-cancer consultants that he would be attending before the end of the week. After we arrived home and had got our heads around the shock news we had an hour earlier received, Sheila, you told me about a song you had heard on the car radio that day. You thought that it would suit my style of singing as well as me as an individual as it epitomised the kind of person I was and my lifestyle. I looked up your gift of this song called, 'The Rose' and immediately fell in love with its beautiful melody and poignant lyrics. My dear mother and all my sisters have always loved a red rose, along with Sheila and I. Indeed, we recently planted three dozen roses in our allotment in a variety of form and colour. Sheila, I will always treasure the song gift you gave me when I most needed it and shall, henceforth regard 'The Rose' as 'our song':
During my life, Sheila, I have deeply loved three women more than all others. You were the last of these loves, yet the best of these loves. While the other two loves of my life provided me with most of my needs, only you gave me all I ever wanted. I met, fell in love with and married a woman who fulfilled my sensual, sensitive and spiritual dimensional needs as a soul mate. Sheila Forde, you are 'Once, twice, three times a lady and I love you: I love you'. I wish you a very happy 6th wedding anniversary, sweetheart. Love Bill: November 10th, 2018":
