Update from East FL

For LL in the UK

To Whom it Did Concern:


Thought it might be time for a wee update and a few reflective thoughts. First of all why you have been yet another repeat break to the same old place. I have been over here on the east coast of Florida, taking in a little golf in Boca Raton and staying at my home in West Palm Beach.

Do you know that in all the time I have been living here I have never gone back to Orlando. Tampa, yes, but not Orlando. It doesn't hold any attraction for me. Maybe, when the younger grandchildren are a little older, I will go again. The last time was with you and your 'boys'.

Weather wise it is pretty darn good here. Around 27-28C during the day and 20C at night. No need for overcoats or mufflers (scarves to you) in the Sunshine State. Pool is heated of course so I don't have to give up my daily swimming. The week before last I had family visit in Naples including Brad and Tom and their children. They are Ash's sons of course. They can't make it for Thanksgiving due to the demands of in-laws, but I will have a crowd down here anyway.

There's another Navy re-union in the New Year, and I will be over there in the UK for a week or so after the New Year has passed.

It amuses me greatly that you and he keep returning to the same old places for your breaks/vacations - that would drive me crazy. You sure did trap yourself through your admitted wrong decision, didn't you. I still hold a spark for you, somewhere but these days it's a mere flicker of it's former self. It would take more than a brief puff of air to rekindle it.

Back then I think you didn't know yourself, and you certainly didn't wait to get to know me - the real me that is, clear of bereavement. I knew exactly what I was doing when I pressed you to commit. I think you are, as I believe you have been for a lot of your life, a mixed up person, who never really discovered her true self, or way in life.  You may think you had, but you hadn't.

You told me you wanted to be free. Strange as it may seem to you now, that is exactly what I was offering you - real freedom, free to do do and enjoy whatever you desired (within reason😉). I have, and had the means to make that happen - you didn't.

Without trying to sound immodest, I was the best choice you never made. All those past relationships of yours - you know that I was different to each and every one of the others, including your current man. I was and am, the stable one, the secure one, the one who was and is into loving long term relationships. Married over thirty years and then a second time for ten years - parted only by death in each case.

Forget the cars, the plane, the helicopter, the boats and the homes. You would have had a loving, attentive relationship and ...great sex! By your own admission, you made the wrong decision and, given the passage of time, you have lost more than you will ever know. What you have never had etc may be a thought that passes through your mind, but you and I both know that's rubbish.

Has he lived up to your expectations? Where is the 'small place' in Spain? Physically, how the hell were you attracted to that fine figure of a man. That remark is loaded with irony, incidentally, bearing in mind you 'like a man with a bit of flesh on his bones'.

I'll leave you to recover from your vacation, do the washing and ironing etc and live your less than satisfactory and mundane life. The one you chose through poor decision making. The one you chose because your mind can't encompass the bigger picture, the possibilities, the excitement, the affection and the security that was once on offer.

I'll leave you to decipher the language below, but I'll give you a clue. My father taught me to speak the tongue ...

A chionn' s gu bheil thu an-còmhnaidh a 'dèanamh nan co-dhùnaidhean ceàrr

 ____________________

Soraidh

and

Ciao