In my last few moments at home, before leaving for the airport last January, I hastily wrote out a love note, embellished with lipstick kisses, and left it on Chris’s pillow.

Now over three months later the note has been brought to my attention for, although it was cherished (and kept pinned up on the fridge door), also it has been something of an enigma to my husband. Perhaps I should have taken more care in my writing – it was rather hurried – because, owing to an illegible word, Chris couldn’t quite fathom my meaning. It read thus….

Not so far away my Darling… I love you and I’ll always be ****  in my mind… honestly. I don’t want to go.

Your Sally

“What is that word?” asked Chris this morning as he took down the page of note paper from the fridge to show me. “Is it ‘love’? But it doesn’t make sense – ‘and I’ll always be love in my mind…’ In my loneliness I have tried to take comfort from your note covered in kisses but, each time I’ve looked at it I have wondered what you meant by ‘and I’ll always be love in my mind’. By the way, what did you mean?”

Chris handed me the note and I attempted to decipher it.

“That’s not an el, it’s an aitch,” I said, “I think the word is have. ‘And I’ll always be have in my mind…’ No, that doesn’t work either, not unless you put the be and the have together but I would never write ‘And I’ll always behave in my mind…’! (Oh dear!)

I laughed and considered the possibility that, in my haste, all that time ago I might have made a Freudian slip. It didn’t seem likely when, so clearly, I was in two minds about leaving.

Don’t worry, my writing is not so poor that I could not work it out eventually (when I wasn’t trying too hard), though I must confess I expressed myself badly. The mysterious word was ‘here’ and I was trying to say:

In my mind I will always be here (if not physically). Honestly, I don’t want to go…

So much more romantic. But I’m glad I went.

Now that I’m recovered from my flight I shall soon have to go back a few steps to bring you up to date with important recent events like the amazing wedding on Sunday…