My Darling Husband,

IMISS you so much, more than words can say. You left me suddenly, I never got a chance to say goodbye, so I’m saying it now. All the things I never said... I loved you from the first moment we met on a hot sweaty dance floor and you asked me to dance.

You were a handsome devil with your long curly dark hair and big blue eyes. All the girls fancied you, but I got you. I was the one for you and you were the one for me.

I loved you as a shy young bride in the bridal suite of our hotel. I can still feel the passion of our early married life when I came to you as a girl and you found the woman in me. I loved you down the years, the ups and downs of married life, the fun and laughter, the tears and traumas.

I loved you as a young woman in my prime and as a mother and matron of 50 years.

I loved you then and I love you now and it’s great to get this chance to tell you these little words, so simply, yet so profound — I love you. I wish I’d said them to you when you were alive and well and still with me, but I think you knew how much I loved you and still do. Sleep well, my Prince. Your loving wife Elizabeth. PS: I’ve just been reading that lovely poem by Yeats,

When You Are Old, and it made me think of you and how much you loved “the pilgrim soul” in me and “the sorrows of my changing face”. We never got the chance to grow old together, but we got the chance to love and be loved and for that I feel truly blessed. Elizabeth Wall, Rosslare Strand, Co Wexford