3.14 Because he was there
If anyone asks her why she married me, Bernie always says, ‘Because he was there!’
You can read her account of how it happened in CHANGING SCENES OF LIFE (https://sites.google.com/site/llanwrdafamily/a-good-read-1/changing-scenes-of-life). Here’s an extract of her conversation with Jonah about it.
‘A month or two after Eddie left for Jamaica, Peter came for a weekend and never quite got round to going back – apart from moving back into the family home whenever Hannah paid a flying visit to check that Dad was OK.
‘I imagine that lots of people made wild, unfounded assumptions about the actual sleeping arrangements, but he really did occupy the spare room for over two years. As anyone with an ounce of common sense would understand, he was far too devoted to Angie’s memory to be in the least tempted to do anything else.’
‘So what changed?’
‘Nothing really. But I suppose it was just a matter of time. One evening Peter came downstairs after putting Lucy to bed and I made some remark about how much she liked having him reading her bedtime story. We were sitting together on the settee in the living room. He said something along the lines of: he supposed the sensible thing to do under the present circumstances would be for us to get married. And I asked him if that was a proposal. And he said that he supposed it probably was.’
‘How incredibly romantic!’ Jonah observed.
‘Yes, wasn’t it?’ Bernie agreed, with a grin. ‘Anyway, one thing led to another and we got talking and in the end we fell asleep in each other’s arms and the next thing we knew was Lucy, age five and a half, demanding to know what we were doing downstairs at that hour in the morning! And I’ll never forget what she said after that. She said, “if you want to sleep together you’d be more comfy upstairs. Mam’s bed is big enough for two people.”’