Meet You At The Church

I kept picking up and then putting down the Amazing Weight Loss In Two Weeks book, feeling the emerging bump rising from my belly there didn't seem to be much point really. It was a nice feeling though, a little life inside me, growing to be a real person in just over 7 months now. How lucky we are.

With a smile I think back to when Garth and I met in the "romantic setting of Mr Patels corner shop, he was just coming in for his morning paper and I was just rushing out, as usual, late for work and our worlds collided. The contents of my handbag scattered across the pavement as he stood there staring for a moment and then started to apologise profusely as if it were his fault. As I was well known for my clumsiness and scatiness we both knew that if we had collided in cars my insurance premiums would be going up.

And that was the start of it. We seemed like an odd couple really, he was a graphic artist at a design agency in town and I was a librarian. Our appearances couldn't have been more different he always had his hair cut, how my Mother would call, "differently whether he had coloured streaks, partly shaved, sometimes spiky or sometimes flat he always liked to make an impact. Whilst I looked like a librarian personified, the glasses, the sensible clothes, the need to fit in and not be different. With us it was definitely a case of opposites attract.

Our first date was at a little Bistro near to where I used to live, it wasn't a high class establishment but the food was to die for. We were the last to leave that night but the whole evening had seemed to go by in a flash. From then on we saw each other regularly and it just seemed natural for me to move in with Garth after about three months.

And then he proposed. I remember that evening well, we'd had an argument about his alternative housekeeping methods, the fact that the bathroom does need to be cleaned more than once every two months to be specific, when he just blurted out "Oh for goodness sake will you just marry me woman?. Time stood still for a split second as we both just fell silent and stared at each other. I was the one to eventually break the silence by saying "Do you mean that?, and he answered back "I've never been more serious in my life.

I floated around for weeks after that day showing my small, but perfectly formed, engagement ring to everybody who I knew. We decided that we weren't going to have a long engagement and set a date for the wedding in November of the following year, it was over a year away but we had plenty to do in that time.

Both of our parents were, shall we say, comfortable money wise and we were both only children so sneaking off to have a quiet ceremony with only one or two guests was well out of the picture. I never realised that there was so much to organise for a wedding - church arrangements, dresses, cars, flowers, favours for tables, and worst of all table plans!

I seemed to take on most of the responsibility for the wedding as if it were up to Garth we'd just go to a registry office and have a bag of chips for our reception! Mind you having gone through all the stress and strain of seeing to everything over the past months at times the thought of doing this crossed my mind. He was in charge of our honeymoon arrangements which hopefully would be somewhere sunny and where I'll be waited on hand and foot without having to worry about anything.

One thing that Garth had shown an interest in helping with was the cars. He'd insisted on a vintage Rolls Royce to take me and my Dad to the church and a Hummer for himself and the best man. Traditional and alternative choices but that was the basis of our relationship from the start.

The rattling of the door opening suddenly brought me round from my thinking "Darling its nearly time to go to the church said my Mum. She'd been great over the last couple of weeks - the hymns, the church arrangements, the catering - she'd been a big help with it all.

Getting dressed I can't help but look over at my wedding dress hanging in the wardrobe and brush a tear from my eye. I won't be going to the church in the vintage Rolls Royce now, and Garth won't be going to the church in the Hummer he was so looking forward to driving. Fate had played its hand and brought our lives to a stop.

Black hearses were the order of the day now, with lilies instead of carnations, and tea and sympathy replacing the party we had planned.

Two weeks before the wedding Garth had been walking home from work as usual with his iPod plugged into his ears, in a world of his own. A drunk driver had come careering down a side street, mounted the pavement and took away my one and only true love plus my best friend within minutes.

So I may not be in my white dress, and you may not be in your new suit but I'm on my way and I'll meet you at the church.