July 4th

I still have a cold and a hacking cough that attacks at odd and inopportune moments so I've been spending the holiday weekend doing as little as possible.  Sometimes I sat at the computer and sometimes I watched TV.  And in between times I napped. 

Saturday, I watched several episodes of the British comedy As Time Goes By.  I like this series not just because it's funny and well acted, but because I can relate to it.  It's about an older couple who met when the woman was a young nurse and the man was a young soldier.  They met, fell madly in love for the 3 months they were together, he went to the Korean war, and they didn't see each other again for 38 years.  Then they met, fell back in love, and are living happily ever after.

When I was a young nurse I met a young Brit, a student not a soldier, and we spent 3 months one summer falling in love.  Then he went home to England, I went home to Indiana, and we never had a chance to fall out of love if that was what we were falling in to.

In the TV series, Lionel wrote Jean a letter as soon as he reached Korea, but it was never delivered so she thought he had forgotten her even as his boat sailed off into the sunset.  In my life, my Brit and knew the end of summer would be the end of "us" so we promised each other that we would have a wonderful summer, we wouldn't fall in love, we'd have no expectations of forever after.   There'd be no letters to write, none to read, none to wait for.  We didn't even exchange addresses or phone numbers.  We were so modern, so hip, so mature.

My Brit was more resourceful than  Jean's.  He got my address from a mutual friend and wrote to me.  I wrote back and for ten years we corresponded from one side of the world to the other.  One year he wrote and told me he was getting married.  He signed the letter, "With all my love".   A few years later he wrote me that they had a son.  And gradually the letters stopped.  I don't remember who wrote the last letter.  I was moving from state to state and town to town around that time and maybe he wrote a letter that never arrived.  Maybe I forgot to send him a new address.  Doesn't really matter.  It was time.

Anyway, 39 years ago an American woman and an Englishman celebrated the 4th of July together.  I can't help but wonder if we'll ever meet again, if the next chapter will mirror As Time Goes By. 

Whereever you are, my forever young Brit, I just want to say one more time, Thanks for a wonderful summer.  The kind of summer every young woman should have at least once so she'll have something to remember fondly when time goes by.