like the beating of a heart, can seem so simple and yet be so complex.
‘What a glorious summer day we have to help us all celebrate this wonderful union, the longed-for joining of Nancy and Clive,’ the vicar says, leading us through the beautiful ceremony.
I enjoy the ceremony so much that I dare to miss a heart-rate recording.
‘I do,’ Nancy says, and by then there is not a dry eye in the small church.
Everyone here knows their story. The local paper is covering the fifty-five-year engagement. Even PC Doyle is at the back sobbing his heart out. Clive’s original cold case is now solved, with the help of the allotment CCTV and a confession, the suspect being an allotment holder making it fairly easy work.
I smile at George in his patchwork jacket in his role as best man. It turns out that Clive’s infamous jacket wasn’t a charity-shop find. It was in fact a creation of Nancy’s, who still has quite the flair with a sewing machine.
Later, we head for afternoon tea at Tess’s café. Every vegetable in the spread has come from Clive’s allotment, as he now supplies Tess’s Treats regularly with his produce. There are quiches, potato salads, pickled onions (of course), couscous and stuffed peppers. And the puddings are delicious things like rhubarb fool and summer berry meringue and a three-tier wedding cake made by Tess herself. Clive and Nancy have obviously let her choose how to decorate it because it is a triumph of unicorns and edible glitter. There are hundreds of other places they could have had their reception, but they wanted it to be here. At the place where they re-met, and as a thank you to all of us for helping them find each other again. It’s the perfect venue. I even get to sit in my favourite spot.
Clive delivers a beautiful speech, declaring the only thing that could have been more surprising is if Nancy announces she’s expecting.
One more sentimental part in particular speaks to me. It’s when he says: ‘The heart is more complex than I’ve ever imagined. It has the ability to remember, but also to forget. It can love to the point of bursting. And I feel so privileged to have had my heart burst, not once, but over and over again. I cannot tell you how much love I have for the people with us today, knowing we wouldn’t have found each other again without your help.’
It’s only later, when Clive and Nancy are attempting to teach us all how to dance, that I get a moment with Clive.
‘Now, we finally get our dance,’ he says, as he takes my hand and brushes a finger across my heart tattoo. ‘Follow my lead,’ he says, like it was ever going to be that simple.
I stand on his foot within two moves. I take up an unreasonable amount of his time as he tutors me through the next three songs until Nancy has to ask for her groom back.
It makes me realise that we’ll never be able to make up for the loss of time. But as with all things, we must look to the positive…
Life, in the same way it can grind us down in despair, can also give us unexpected gifts of hope.
A lost love found…
A broken soul healed…
A heart so tiny it can’t even be heard on a Doppler yet.
George and I are waiting until after the honeymoon to let them know they’re going to be grandparents.
That brings us back to Part One – The Right Atrium – the start of the story. The beginning of the beat of a heart. The chance to start all over again…
At some point in the future, when someone looks to see what history we left behind, they will see on the electoral roll that Nancy Ellington does live with Clive Ellington. Fifty-five years after Nancy Fuller couldn’t live with the stranger she loved.
And around the corner, over the road from the allotment, Keisha Grant moves into Guildford Gardens with George Palmer, into a blue-painted house with a colourful interior, influenced heavily by their most frequent visitor, who no longer drinks tea alone in his allotment shed when they’re home. And for the next three electoral rolls, another name will join them as their family grows. Fortunately, all three children end up liking pickled onions.
If this beautiful tale of lost love and found love has you reaching for the tissues and feeling all the feels, then don’t miss out on Catherine’s