Serif quote across upper back

The new sprung floor went down at the Palais on Tuesday, and the first thing Mr Pryce did was go through the loose board by the bandstand, so you would have been proud of him for getting up laughing. We danced the Saturday waltz anyway. Nobody minded the draught from the hole. I stood where you always stood, by the pillar with the chipped gilt, and counted the bars the way you taught me, one and two and three, until my feet remembered.

The nurse says you ate all of the custard on Sunday and told her it tasted of the Blackpool front in March. I have decided to believe her, because you have never once lied to a nurse about custard. Your sister wants me to stop catching the bus every fortnight and sit down, but I told her I have been sitting down for thirty-one years and my knees have had quite enough of it.

I know what the doctor says about your chest, and I know you have heard the same speech from three men in white coats who all said 'realistic' as though it were a prize. Let them keep their word. You and I were never realistic people. We bought the house with the leaking roof and the lovely bay window, and we were glad of it.

So here is the news I was saving. The committee has agreed to name the Christmas dance after you, and they want you in the front row wearing a paper crown. Dorothy is making it from the leftover tinsel. Wear the blue tie.

It has been a beautiful fight, love. Still is.

Yours, Vi