All The Nice Gals Love A Tar

When I received this photo, Si had been at sea probably for the best part of 3 months. 

We had been together for a year, and in that year, we had spent more time apart than we had together.   He had been in Gothenburg, Portugal, all round the south coast, Dundee and this trip - to the Gulf; the letters had been flying back and forth, and every so often one letter would arrive with a handful of photos. Some I treasured,  like this one; others made me sad, because the longer he was away, the more foreign and strange looking he had become to me. 

When they went to the Gulf, the fight for Saddam at that time, against the Iranians, he left the day before my graduation.   In the Assembly Halls in Edinburgh, I told the Dean of the University, when asked "What are you going to do with your degree?"  "Get married", I said, and waved my ring in his direction. "Yip, get married".  

I  did do things with my degree;  a managerial post, a post-graduate, more exams... but the thing I'm most proud of - my marriage and my kids.   Oh yes.  

And yes, I am feeling very delicate today, very, very delicate.