What a difference a day (lifetime) made!

Come the 29Th of this month it would have been my 41st Wedding Anniversary - OK, these days I celebrate alone physically - but mentally Bruno is always with me. Such wonderful memories too... Some silver ones, some golden. Sure like all good marriages (if you're honest) there were one or two darker ones scattered here and there too - but not one that I would wish to lose from my memory.

Then I got to thinking how things had changed on a personal level and what Bruno would have been like today if he had still been with me. After a bit of scratching around in boxes I found a couple of photo's of us when we first met in the early 60's. They're a bit 'blurry' and do (of course) have that 'sepia tinge'. But after all they were taken in the last century (hahaha...).

But the changes over the years have been, to say the least, rather amusing.... look at those turn ups on his trousers and the double breasted suit that was all the fashion in those days. As for me - well that was in my 'blond period' which actually lasted for nearly 9 years. But it was the incessant appearance of those 'dark roots' and the subsequent cost that put paid to that 'foible'.

I clearly remember the night when this photo was taken at a club in Rimini. It was my very first date with this 'romantic' Italian - he was truly 'to die for'.
My first meeting him with him went like this..

It was my birthday, and as had become the norm, it was spent in a small family run hotel in Rimini which my parents and I had been visiting for a number of years. We always celebrated with the hotel owners family and a German couple who were there every year too - the 'party' beginning after the evening meal and when all other guests had gone out. On this particular night, one chap - a Milanese friend of the 'hotel family' had arrived late and ate his meal alone in the empty restaurant. By the time he had finished and slowly wandered towards our group we were - shall we say - in good spirits. He stopped and 'saluted' his friends (the owners) and was introduced to our party. The silly s*d didn't know how to say Happy Birthday in English to me, so he just smiled and said something that sounded like 'Merry Crissman'....at which point my father said "Oh for heavens sake - take this drink and join us!" He didn't need telling twice. Well - long story short - he asked me out for the following night. Ha - I told him "Sorry - got a date already for tomorrow!" (those were the days - I'm tellin' you...).

Well the following evening after dinner I'm waiting for my date to arrive to collect me.... but instead 'Rosella' the daughter of the hotel owner approached me and asked if I was waiting for someone? On the affirmative, she laughed and said "Well I wouldn't bother. Signor Bruno has just stopped him from coming in and told him to 'clear off' as you are his date tonight!"

Romantic - or what? He then took me to the club where the above photo was taken..... Needless to say - that particular holiday was very special for us both! One of those 'Golden Memories' that I still treasure.

I'll tell you about his romantic marriage proposal sometime too.... if nothing else it goes to prove that while the body and mind may well deteriorate over the years - the memory will keep you going for ever!