23: June 2059, It Didn't Half Hurt

We had fourteen happy years together, Rachel and I. I remember working for her all those years ago and as much as I had eventually come to like and respect her as my boss, I never imagined in my wildest dreams I'd ever be married to her. Of course I wasn't blind, I knew she was attractive. But she just wasn't ever on my radar.

As I sat beside her I thought back on my own life. The losses of my wife Lorna and then my girlfriend Izzy. My failed relationships after letting down both Davina and then Rose. Then those years of single-hood, enjoying my own space, focussing on supporting Josh through his early adulthood, and Chlo during those first few years with Little Izzy, and the other babies who followed. Worrying whether Mika really was as happy as she claimed to be. I thought I'd found true love a few times, but it never quite turned out that way. And then along came Rachel. I had nothing to lose now except time, so I asked her out. She didn't answer straight away, and I assumed it was a no. Eddie had been the love of her life and I knew I could never measure up to him, and yet I'd hoped that maybe we could find some form of happiness together. And then after two days, she called back and said yes.

Like me she'd had her one true love in Eddie, like I had with Izzy. Like me she was now settling for contentment over loneliness. Like me, she was making the most of what we did have, rather than focussing on what she'd lost. We had built genuine happiness out of that, together.

And like me, she had raised children who weren't her own. Two of them were her nephews who she had taken on despite their mother's awful treatment of her. Rachel treated Philip as her own, and still had him living with her. She legally adopted Charlie. Michael had his own excellent mother, but a child can never be loved too much, and Rachel treated him as one of her own as well. Even Emily, Eddie's ex-wife's child, had become a part of our family. Today, all four of them sat with me around her hospital bed, talking to her while she slipped away from us, holding her hands as she breathed her last. Philip was the most affected, and I knew he was going to need the most help going forward. Michael, Charlie and Emily had all had a solid grounding of a loving childhood, whereas for Philip, this had only arrived for him as an adult. He never had managed to live independently, living with me and Rachel right up to the end. He was going to need me to take him under my wing, for the little time I would have left. Like Rachel, I was old now. I feared for his future while I held him and comforted him while he sobbed.

Rachel brought me fourteen happy years in the winter of my life. I hoped that I too had brought her happiness. Much as I missed her, I was glad she wasn't the one left alone again for a third time. For me, approaching 90, it wouldn't be too long anyway. It was sad and I missed her, but there was nothing unexpected here, no tragedy. She was 94 for goodness sake. I was just going to have to find a way to live the next few years alone, much as I'd expected before I met her anyway. But it didn't half hurt.

The End.