What… five weddings and a funeral?

I wanted a better life – with a perfect family, white picket fence and beautiful children. So, at 19 I married the only man who asked me. He was 10 years older and provided the sperm for my three beautiful children. Sadly, 20 years of abuse meant there were no picket fences or happy endings.

Words Lyn Traill

But thankfully, I wasn’t to die wondering. I escaped and got an inkling about what ‘in love’ meant. That first taste did not last and I raced into a second marriage. It wasn’t a good sign when his girlfriend turned up on our honeymoon. He said I was the only person he knew that could walk across a road and have an adventure – and he didn’t mean it as a compliment.

Husband number three appeared on the scene – a handsome sea captain. This was going to be THE ONE. I realised too late that he really wasn’t into women but we gave it a good go.

I thought I was done, but my daughter put me on a dating site against my wishes. A persistent man told me that we should definitely meet. Three weeks later he asked me to marry him and magically, I at last found what real love was all about. Alas, no happy endings because he died of a brain tumour after eight wonderful years. Now my history became - “Four Weddings and a Funeral”.

I am grateful for the amazing experiences I’ve had –the good, bad and the ugly. I wrote a book about grief, Rainbows through Cobwebs and soldiered on. But once again, as I approached my seventy-ninth birthday, I met an interesting man, completely different from any other.

There is so much more that I could write, but suffice to say, it didn’t take long for me to find that he was the first man who ticked every box that I had formulated at some time. It was a match and exactly a year after we met, he proposed.

Before number four departed I wrote a book called Sizzling at Seventy. What great years they were. My last words in the book were, “I wonder what I will be doing at 80.” Now I know and I feel like a teenager, I have never been so happy.

So, Mum, I have loved and lost a few. I believe what is leading me to this wonderful fifth marriage is that I have always moved on. I’ve learnt to understand myself, laugh a lot, got rid of victimhood and kept on learning – never giving up.

I wonder what the title of my next book will be?