A Lifetime of Loving You

Winnie glanced at herself sideways in the little bathroom mirror and flashed her teeth at herself. Will had always liked this scarf, this one that was green like mown grass, with the tiny butterflies on it. It made her happy to wear it, knowing that he’d know that she had worn it just for him. It was vanity to enjoy being admired, but he was her husband and Winnie was too sensible not to know how special it was that he still admired her (for both her looks and personality) after all these years.  She trod quietly as she made her way back into the bedroom. Let him sleep in, she thought. She sat by the window and picked a book off of her pile. She liked to have a few different things on the go. It was a fascinating novel, but it quickly fell into her lap as the morning sun catching all the myriad dewdrops in their little garden caught her eye.

“Looking for fairies?” Will asked. Winnie jumped and laughed at herself as she turned to look at him.

“How long have you been awake?” she asked.

“A few minutes.” He replied, getting slowly out of bed and kissing her wrinkled forehead. “Happy anniversary love, cup of tea?”

“It’s the sort of morning for fairies, you know.” Winnie replied, gazing back at their little garden, but she couldn’t quite recapture the magic. “I can get the tea.”

“I have something to show you.” Will said.

“Oh! That’s nice.”

Winnie was intrigued. She and Will always did gifts at special occasions. They both enjoyed choosing things and laughing about the bad choices they sometimes made. She was grateful for that too. They had argued about so many things in all the years, but never anything quite as practical as presents. It was always theories, and feelings and all sorts of fascinating other things.  Will knew that she had made him his favourite dessert for dinner, but unusually, she hadn’t worked out what he had done for her. They sat down in the living room with the steaming mugs of tea. Will put a disc in their laptop and then went to stand behind her chair, and rested his chin on her head.

The words ‘A Lifetime of Loving You’ came up on the screen.

Winnie turned to look at Will with a smile in her eye.

“Yes I know it’s cheesy, just turn around and watch it.” He said, fixing her head forward, gently.  

The film began with Will’s best friend, Jim, from school sitting in an armchair.

“Will was never the soppy one of our friend group. He was happy being one of the guys and was equally friendly to everyone. He used to be normal and talk about tech and movies with us. Then he fell in love with Winnie and we never heard about anything else. It was Winnie this, and Winnie that.” Jim chuckled, as did the cameraman.

“Ah, did our grandson help you make this?” Winnie asked, recognising the cameraman’s laugh. Will said he did, and pointed her back to the screen. He was obviously very proud of his video.

“But we didn’t mind all that much.” Jim continued, “We all liked Winnie.”

The video cut to a shaky video of secondary schoolers acting out a play.

Winnie gasped. “That was when we performed ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’” She said. They watched their younger selves, probably about 15 at the time, acting out the scene where Benedict overhears that Beatrice loves him.

“It was during those rehearsals that I properly got to know you.” Winnie reflected. Will laughed.

“I had been very curious about you before then.”

“Oh really?” Winnie said laughing. “I felt the same about you.”

“I know.”

Their drama teacher, a very old man by this point, was on screen talking about how teachers sometimes can spot which kids like the others. “I had a hunch even then.” He concluded before the video moved on to some clips taken by a 16-year-old Winnie, interviewing all the kids who had been in their friend group.

Will chuckled. “I can’t for the life of me remember what you were interviewing us about.”

The girl on the screen was rambling on about the importance of activism.

“It was about saving the environment. I mostly remember how excited I was to use dad’s video camera.”

“We were all jealous.” Will said. They both fell silent as young Will came onto the screen.

“I think it is important to stand up for what matters to you. Your words reflect what you think is most important.” At this point, all the other boys clustering nearby got a bit hyper and wrestled young Will a bit and the video cut short abruptly.

More scenes of their childhood flashed by. One video from a church picnic showed the two of them holding hands, walking through the pretty, sprawling garden that had belonged to someone at the church.

“Fancy Marge catching our first date on camera.” Winnie murmured.

“Fancy her knowing about it and us still managing to keep it secret for as long as we did.”

Eventually the limited footage they had of their teenage years ran out and the next scene was of their wedding. There was a small clip of their vows and Winnie felt tears spring to her eyes. As the young couple on the screen kissed Will leant down and shared a kiss with his bride of 60 years.

There was quite a bit of footage of their reception and they laughed over clips of Uncle Al giving slightly drunken marriage advice (he never having been married himself); their nephews and nieces who now had children of their own, racing around in their best clothes to the despair of their parents; their first dance (Winnie commented that Will had improved incredibly since then and barely ever stood on her feet nowadays.)

In the next series of videos, Will was behind the camera. It was footage from their short honeymoon on a canal boat. There were some pretty shots of Winnie sunbathing, Winnie eating ice cream, Winnie feeding the ducks. Will had been just as obsessed with her then as he was now.

Then there was Winnie with their first baby. There seemed to be endless footage of them and their four children. There was first steps, first words, school recitals, days out, parties, holidays and graduations.

There were a few other odd shots of the most recent years and the video rolled to an end.

“We’ve lived a happy life Will.”

“That we have, love.”

“Thank you.”

Will slipped his hand into hers and they sat and watched the sunlight stream in through the window.