I'm sorry it has been so long since I updated this story. I was a bit scared to post this chapter, given what happens in it. This is just the way my brain took me, and I hope no one hates it!

19: July 2040, An Ending

"Thank you all for coming today to remember my darling Eddie. I had him by my side for the past thirty-three years, and I only wish I'd met him sooner. Together we shared three beautiful boys: Philip, Michael and Charlie. I only wish I'd had the opportunity to know Eddie's other son, Michael's twin, Stephen."

I heard a sob, and I knew it must have come from Alison. I never meant to add to her pain, but I couldn't let Eddie's dear little boy go unmentioned. He had never stopped loving Stephen, nor missing him. And of course, neither had Alison. Afterwards, with tears streaming down her face, she thanked me for mentioning Stephen. It was the right thing to say after all.

"Boys, you have each brought us both so much happiness, in all your different ways, and over the past few years our house has once again rung with the chaos of small children as you brought our beautiful grandchildren into our lives."

"I first met Eddie when I was brought in as the new headteacher at Waterloo Road School. It has long since closed, but I know it remains legendary in these parts, and I can tell you it absolutely was both as awful and as great as everything you will have heard about it. Eddie'd had his eye on the headship and so our relationship didn't start off on a good footing."

I heard a few giggles in the church. I followed the sound and my eyes met the small group of my dearest friends, those who had worked with me and Eddie back at Waterloo Road all those years ago. Tom, Kim, Steph, I knew they must remember all too well Eddie's initial opinions of me – and perhaps their own. I smiled my thanks to them for being here with me today. Some of them I hadn't seen in many years, and yet that bond we'd formed all those years ago at Waterloo Road was unbreakable.

"Eventually we learned to respect each other and built a good working relationship, but neither of us had the confidence to admit how we really felt about each other. Eddie finally asked me out for a meal on the last day of term, but we never made it to our first date because the school caught fire and I spent the entire summer break in hospital. By the first day back he'd downgraded his offer to a drink, but my confidence was damaged by the burn I sustained and I knocked him back that day. Eddie ended up having a baby with my sister, something neither of us were ever able to regret, despite the jealousy I felt at the time, because it brought a beautiful little boy into our lives, and raising Charlie together, alongside Philip and Michael, has brought us so much joy. For my own part, I didn't exactly help our relationship prospects when I married Adam."

"Eddie took a step back from management when Charlie came along. He wanted to be as involved as possible with his new baby, as well as his older son, Michael. Once Eddie and I finally became friends again, he'd built a loving, affectionate relationship with both boys, and yet still found the time to support and encourage me in rebuilding my life after Adam died. Eddie never did return to full time teaching, at first genuinely needing the time for his two young boys, but as they grew up he found he rather liked being a hands-on dad, and then grandad, as well as the free time it gave him to sit around the house in his pants."

"Eddie's proposal was less than romantic. Neither of us really believed in marriage at that point. Eddie was already divorced, I was recently widowed. Marriage, for us, held only painful memories. It turned out that adopting my lovely nephew Charlie would be simpler if we were married, and so we took a purely practical decision to make it quicker to give Charlie the stability we wanted for him. I wondered if I would look back later and regret marrying him, but I have to say, he restored my belief in marriage. I'm so pleased I was married to Eddie for thirty happy years."

"The worst time of our life together was during the pandemic back in 2020, when Eddie spent six weeks in hospital with coronavirus. He and I had never spent a night apart since we married. We weren't allowed to visit him, and we didn't know whether he would even be coming back to us. I tried to hide my fears from the boys, who were teenagers at the time, and I don't know whether I made a very good job of hiding the fact that I cried every night in the shower until Eddie came home. This time, my darling Eddie isn't coming home."

Tears had been running down my face as I spoke, but by now I was struggling to speak and I had to close my eyes, take a few deep breaths and compose myself. I sensed a presence beside me and felt three strong hands, one on my shoulder, one taking my left hand, and the other taking my right. Surrounded by the love and strength of my three boys, I found the strength to continue.

"During Eddie's slow recovery, I remember having to have an awkward conversation with him. Each day he would join us downstairs for an hour or so, in his dressing gown. But he would fall asleep on the sofa, and his dressing gown would flap open. And these lovely boys begged me to ask him to wear some underwear."

I could feel them shaking with laughter by my side, as I heard quiet laughter echoing around the church. I looked around, seeing the funeral guests laughing at this story. That was Eddie all over, making people laugh even in difficult times. I was glad I knew where Alison was sitting, as I knew I needed to avoid making eye contact with her if I was to avoid bursting out into hysterical laughter. She was probably the only other person here today who would know about Eddie's dislike of wearing clothes.

"When I first met Eddie I was young, professional, ambitious, but single, childless, and to be honest, rather lonely. My only family was my lovely nephew Philip. But without ever needing to go through childbirth myself, Eddie brought with him a loving family into my life with his two lovely boys, Michael and Charlie, and also Eddie's first wife, Alison, who has not only been a fantastic mother to our Michael, but also a great friend to both me and Eddie, and Alison, her husband, and their lovely daughter have become permanent members of our family."

"Eddie was seventy-eight years old. People say that isn't a bad age, he had a good long life. But for me, that wasn't anywhere near long enough. Eddie is the love of my life and I don't know what I'm going to do without him. But you are all here today to share in remembering him and with that kind of support, along with the love of these three lovely boys, I know I will find a way."

"Thank you all for coming today."