When Sally was born, everyone said how lovely she looked with her sapphire blue eyes and the beginnings of long blonde hair. However, there were problems at her birth for the baby was not breathing.
Thankfully the midwife knew exactly what to do as she slow and gently removed the silver spoon from the baby’s lips.
When John was born, everyone said how lovely he looked but they were lying. Even the midwife said how lovely he was as she wrapped him in an old towel, not to keep him warm but to hide his face.
Sally and John had been born many miles apart and yet they were destined to meet and to fall in love.
Sally was always to be the youngest in her family. Her father was a judge and her mother was a magistrate. Her two brothers grew up to become lawyers and her older sister did too. But Sally? Sally wanted to be a teacher.
John’s father was a station porter and his mother was destined to be a shop girl for most of her life. John did not know what he wanted to do. Until he volunteered to help in a school, then he wanted to become a teacher.
So it was, that Destiny started to weave her threads as Sally and John both started teacher training at a college in Liverpool.
However, Sally and John wanted different things; Sally wanted to teach the youngest children while John wanted a Junior school. So the lectures they attended were not always the same, but some of them were.
It was here that John saw Sally and Sally saw John, looking at her.
John liked to sit behind Sally but not too close behind. When she was bored and sometimes for a tease, Sally would gather her hair from behind and then across one shoulder where she gently stroked it. Then with a flick of her head, she’d swing her hair behind and across to lay perfectly upon her other shoulder. John sometimes wondered how she did this and he did like to watch. Sally liked him watching her.
In time, Sally and John started doing things together; student things, fun things and ‘naughty things’. John started to wonder, to wonder how you knew you were in love. Sally wondered too.
Then one day John looked at Sally and Sally looked at him and her eyes were a bright sapphire blue. And John knew and Sally knew too. John said ˜I love you’ and she, ‘I love you too’.
The young couple got engaged and everyone was happy; everything was great. Their destiny was starting to come true but to live your destiny is not always one’s fate.
They wanted different things, so when John had nearly finished his training, Sally still had another year to do. So the couple made their plans; John would do his probation year while Sally finished training, then they would marry and go to Canada to start life anew.
So it was that John went away and along came Ross.
Ross was a playboy, or so he liked to think. He had lots of money but very little else. He had a sportscar which he thought made him God’s gift to the world; at least to the female half of it.
Sally looked at Ross and Sally looked at his car and she thought to herself, ˜wouldn’t it be fun to just have one ride in one?:”
So it was that Sally and Ross went for a ride. And Ross drove fast, as testosterone was wont to make him do. Sally looked ahead and Sally looked like a filmstar with her blonde hair streaming in the breeze. And Sally closed her eyes while Ross looked. He looked and he looked, he looked at Sally.
Which was probably not the best thing to do when merging into traffic.
The lorry braked, the car broke, the wall broke and bones broke. Many miles away, John’s heart broke.
Ross died two days later in hospital. Sally died there on the spot. And John, poor John, what happened to him?
John is telling this story right now and just wants to re-iterate; living your destiny is not always your fate.
