1978
She was looking at him. He sensed her gaze like a physical touch on his temple. But when he turned to her, she was absorbed in the final touches of her latest tea cosy. She never gave them up. Once, a foolish misjudgement let him tell her what he really thought of them, especially now that teasmades and electric kettles were the norm. She had gone quiet, but remained in her seat as hindsight-induced guilt trickled through his conscience. Had he not made a mental vow as his spoken ones were declared at the altar, to never let the smile leave her face?
He shifted his gaze towards the mantelpiece with all its smiling faces. Timothy had followed in his father's footsteps and practised at a surgery on the outskirts of London. The grandchildren came to visit every weekend, and he loved their love for their grandmother. Eternally awed at the sensibility of his son, he only smiled when Timothy had introduced Shelagh to the infants as their grandmother. No further details were needed. He knew that Timothy would always remember and love his biological mother, but saw the sense in holding back the history of two loss-suffering families from young minds whose lives held the potential to be utterly perfect.
The next photo was taken two days before Julie first expressed a wish to explore to America. Both Shelagh and he had to'd-and-fro'd. But darling girl, are you certain that you wish to go so far away? Yes, I am completely certain. They glanced at each other, drifting to a misty day, on a lone road severing a vast open field. Their own adventure taking a tentative, careful, yet precocious start - had they not stretched the boundaries that had been set for so long? What right did they have to hold their girl back? Sensing a change in atmosphere, Julie had gently reminded them that technologies had moved on, travel was faster. With the promise to telephone home every week, they let her fly.
The smiling faces stopped momentarily, and his eyes caught a pair of familiar, up-swept frames. He looked across the room. Her nose and ears supported a pair of rectangular spectacles with a black frame. Behind them, the intense azure gaze was still checking the final needlework, making sure nothing will unravel. Always careful. The concentrated lines between her brows were balanced by creases around her mouth. Those dimples are nearly permanent. His heart lightens with the thought of years of her, smiling: with reverence and hope at beautiful newborns; with pride and joy at Timothy and Julie; and at himself, with every emotion in the world. Devoting herself to her cause, her children, and this decrepit doctor. Indeed, the last smiles on the mantelpiece belongs to themselves. A candid wedding-day photo from "yonks ago", as Jenny Lee had called it on their previous meeting.
"Is something the matter?" His eyes had settled on her again of their own accord, and he finds himself the sole recipient of her attention, handicraft stowed away in a basket next to her on the sofa. A greying strand of silky hair has come loose from the twist at the nape of her neck, and his urge to tuck it back behind her ear is as good as an old habit.
"No. I was just thinking. I am less able go on frivolous adventures outside, so I make do with the ones in my head."
Her eyes become soft and wistful. He closes his and smiles.
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