The grandfather clock in the hall chimed midnight and while a cheer echoed from the day room, Matron gently closed the door on the newly engaged couple and told the young nurse beside her, ‘See that Dr Parkin isn’t disturbed for the rest of the night, nurse.’

As she walked away she had the warmest feeling that she had just witnessed the start of something beautiful; a love that would last a lifetime. She thought what a wonderful start to the New Year it had been. Yes indeed, in fact, she doubted there would ever be another to match it!

Epilogue

February 1946

‘Well, I have to say that was some wedding,’ Ivy declared as she sat sipping tea one cold and frosty February evening in Holly’s kitchen.

Holly nodded as she lifted the teapot and topped up Ivy’s cup, but not before Ivy had spotted the tears in her dear friend’s eyes. Charlotte, Holly’s daughter, had been married the Saturday before in Chilvers Coton Parish Church and as she had drifted down the aisle on her father’s arm in a froth of satin and lace, she had looked almost as stunning as her own mother had on her wedding day. She and her husband, James, were now in Weymouth for two weeks for their honeymoon and then they would be living in Nottingham close to James’s practice. They had met at veterinary college three years before and had been inseparable ever since and although Holly felt that she couldn’t have chosen anyone better for her daughter, now that she was gone, the house suddenly felt empty and time weighed heavily on her.

Gilbert, or Gil as he was affectionately known, Holly’s son, had left home the year before to live in London with his wife, Betty. He had followed in his father’s footsteps and studied medicine and was now working as a junior doctor at Guy’s Hospital.

Sensing her friend’s sadness, Ivy reached over to gently pat Holly’s hand.

‘It makes you wonder where the time goes, don’t it?’ She smiled sadly. ‘It don’t seem like two minutes since you an’ me set off fer London, green as grass. An’ look at all we’ve been through since, eh? Not that it’s all been bad, mind. But it’s hard to believe that we’ve lived through two world wars.’

Holly nodded in agreement. Ivy was right, time seemed to have passed them by in the blink of an eye. It felt like a lifetime ago since she had left home for the first time but she and Ivy were still as close as ever and not a day went by when Holly didn’t thank God for their friendship. Ivy had been her rock over the years, as was Richard, who she still adored as much as she had on the day she married him back in 1919. But he worked such long hours at the hospital that now both of her chicks had flown the nest she didn’t quite know what to do with herself.