'RETURN TO ST MARGARET'S': A POEM WRITTEN ON MY PARENTS' 78TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY...

Return To St Margaret’s…

Leaning into each other, they lurched forth

Towards the church door,

Then turned

And wandered back towards a lens,

As stomachs churned,

Thoughts of turbulent years

Of strife and tears

Sifting, drifting through ageing minds,

Now deprived of love

But scarred by the intolerance

And disappointments that marriage finds…

Wedded fifty years before, they made that walk forth

From the church door,

Then turned

And smiled hard for a lens,

As stomachs churned,

Thoughts of wartime years,

Of strife and fears

Sifting, drifting through young minds,

Then bewitched by love

But blessed by the reverence

And the familiarity that marriage binds…

Pete Ray

March 27th 2020

On their Golden Wedding Day in 1993, I returned my parents to the church where they were married, during the Second World War, 27th March 1943.

Mum died in 2000, dad passed on in 2008.

Today would have been their 78th wedding anniversary…