Globusz^® Publishing 

My parents moved from London to Yorkshire when I was but a toddler and it is this county that I most remember with affection. It was there that the early influential parts of my life were formed. By the time I had completed my formal education I was looking for adventure and had spent some of my later teenage years travelling abroad. The experience gained on these journeys proved useful in getting employment in a number of jobs on my return.

As a result of the shifting location of my fathers’ work, my parents moved back to the south east of England and, when I landed a more permanent job in the health service. I also resettled in the southeast, living not far away from them in Kent.

Most of my social life had revolved around a few long-term school friends, family connections and some acquaintances from work. I am not a particularly gregarious person by nature but I would have been greatly saddened by any reduction in those social contacts that I had formed. I couldn’t imagine my life leading to a situation where I was not making or receiving requests for parties, dinner arrangements, evenings out or suggestions for group holidays.

I had developed an early interest in jazz and for a short time I played saxophone or trombone in a local band. It was nothing very professional but it was great fun and we did a few performances at local pubs. Anne attended one of these gigs and we got talking. It was, as they say, love at first sight. We had so much in common and, from then on, spent as much time as possible in each other’s company. She was bright, enthusiastic and full of the joys of spring. I felt the same and she said I made her happy. I proposed and she accepted. We married but were not able to arrange a honeymoon straight away as we both had commitments at work, but several months later we found the time to have a short holiday in Cornwall. We stayed at a five star hotel and were fortunate with a brilliantly sunny week. Most days were spent down on the beach, delighting in our newly found pastime of swimming. On the last day before we were due to return, Anne challenged me to dive from the rocks to a deep, clear pool below. We raced towards it and she reached the edge before me and dived. I heard the splash and then the cry for help. When I looked down I saw her spread-eagled above a submerged jagged edge of rock. There was blood mixing into the green water of the pool. I clambered down with some difficulty and lifted her out of the water. She was virtually unconscious but, mercifully, still breathing. There was an ugly gash on her head and she was moaning incoherently. I carried her up to a path where a few cars were parked and someone phoned for an ambulance. I went with her to the hospital where she was rushed into accident and emergency. They tried for four hours to revive her and save her life, but it was not to be. She died that evening from a massive haemorrhage on the brain. I was devastated.

Following that time, I experienced a continued mixture of emotions. From a previous peak of happiness on meeting and marrying Anne to her sudden death less than a year later, I had only just started to try and get my life together again. Now I had won this large fortune. It could not compensate in any way for the loss, but life was certainly moving in very odd ways for me. I had travelled so quickly from peak to trough and now to another peak with totally different concepts. I wondered what I had done to warrant such a roller coaster ride.

Over the last few months, my life had been filled with all sorts of invitations. Several of my friends had continued to include me in their dinner parties but although I was appreciative I saw them as being designed to help me through this disastrous period and I believed that they would inevitably tail off. The worst occasions were always threesomes, with unspoken difficulties for both parties when the extra, unfilled space at the table was a constant reminder to everyone of the loss. I soon got to the stage where I was so aware of these things that I returned more and more to the comfort of my family and very close friends while resolving not to allow my widower status to become a burden to me. I suppose, I have to some extent, retreated as if into a shell. Invitations continued to come but my enthusiasm has not been there to respond positively.

After Anne’s death both my mother and father and Anne’s parents had pulled together marvellously well, giving each other, and me, much support at a very difficult time for us all. We have all remained good friends. My father has always been an important influence upon my life. It was not that we always agreed or held similar views on everything. That would be far from the truth, but he had the quality of always being able to accommodate an opposing view or argument with tolerance and he was able to logically move a discussion forward to the benefit of both parties. My recent time had been spent more and more with him and my mother. My first call would unquestionably be to see them and hear what they had to say.

I found my mother in the kitchen. As we kissed I noticed my father working on a new summerhouse near the bottom of the garden.

“Mum, dry your hands quickly and come with me out into the garden to see Dad. I’ve got some good news for you both to hear together.”

“What’s the urgency?”

“You’ll see. Come on.”

“Hallo Jim, you’re just in time to give me a hand with this length of timber. I need it lifted up to the roof.”

“Jim says he’s got some good news for us”— my mother said, trying to get his attention.

“Great. What’s that?”

“I’ve just won some money on the lottery.”

“Well that’s good news. Just help me lift it over that beam for me will you.”

“It’s rather a lot of money.”

“The more the better I suppose? There’s one more beam like that and then I’m finished. What will you buy with it?”

“What do you suggest? It’s over five million?”

“What! You’re joking.”

“No, no, it’s no joke.” I had his full attention now. My mother was speechless. Father abandoned the beam and walked towards the house.

“Well now, we’d better go back inside, we seem to have something to talk about here.”

Once in the comfort of their lounge, my mother produced tea and cakes while I outlined my idea for a new community to be settled on a Scottish island.

“I suppose most people winning a fortune like this would buy a larger and better house and live a more expensive life style but I want to do something different from that. What do you think?”

My father leaned forward and said: “Most times when I’ve heard of people who had won large sums of money I felt rather sorry for them, because many of them would be unable to handle the total experience in a sensible way. I have actually asked some friends what they would do with this sort of money if it came their way. It is, at first, quite difficult to grasp the even the numbers, and understand how many a million actually is. I think your idea is as sound as any I’ve heard. Is there a Scottish island available for you to buy?”

“I don’t know yet. I thought I saw one advertised recently in the paper but I still have to find out. What do you think I should do with the money, Mum?”

“I think you should replace that old carpet in your front room, I noticed it was getting a bit threadbare when I was round last week.” We laughed together.

“Thanks Mum, I might just get round to that now.”

“Seriously, I think you should do exactly what you think best” — she continued. “We certainly have had some wonderful times in Scotland, haven’t we?”

“I feel that I need to set myself on an entirely new course, something that will be a challenge and help me move out of this widower complex that is enveloping me. At forty-two years old there has to be a positive future.”

“You just get to it and find out all you can. If you need any help just ask. We’ll do all we can. I think it’s a great idea.”