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Chapters (84)
  1. All the Days of Our Lives
  2. 1945
  3. 1931-1944
  4. I
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. 1946
  28. II
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. III
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. Twenty-Nine
  37. IV
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. Thirty-Two
  41. V
  42. Thirty-Three
  43. Thirty-Four
  44. Thirty-Five
  45. VI
  46. Thirty-Six
  47. Thirty-Seven
  48. 1948-1949
  49. VII
  50. Thirty-Eight
  51. Thirty-Nine
  52. Forty
  53. VIII
  54. Forty-One
  55. Forty-Two
  56. Forty-Three
  57. IX
  58. Forty-Four
  59. Forty-Five
  60. Forty-Six
  61. X
  62. Forty-Seven
  63. Forty-Eight
  64. Forty-Nine
  65. Fifty
  66. Fifty-One
  67. Fifty-Two
  68. Fifty-Three
  69. Fifty-Four
  70. XI
  71. Fifty-Five
  72. Fifty-Six
  73. XII
  74. Fifty-Seven
  75. Fifty-Eight
  76. XIII
  77. Fifty-Nine
  78. XIV
  79. Sixty
  80. XV
  81. Sixty-One
  82. Sixty-Two
  83. 1953
  84. All the Days of Our Lives

‘How marvellous,’ Sybil said gently. ‘You and she both.’

The morning of the wedding dawned as hazily bright and promising as any bride could hope for.

Katie arrived at the church in her pretty, lacy dress and veil to find her father waiting outside, looking very spruce and, she saw, rather dashing. She realized she was very nervous, and she could see that he was too.

‘Is everyone here?’ she asked.

‘I think so,’ he reassured her. ‘They’re waiting for you. Are you ready, my dear?’

She looked up at him. ‘Thank you for coming.’

‘I wouldn’t have missed giving my little girl to her husband now, would I?’ He looked at her emotionally. ‘Bless you, Katie. Marek’s a fine man. Don’t take your mother and I as your married pattern – I mean, as if you would! But it can be so much better, believe me.’

‘I know,’ she said with a heartfelt smile. ‘Thanks.

‘Shall we go in?’

Katie gathered herself, then nodded. She walked into the shadowy, incense-perfumed church and began her walk along the aisle, under the gaze of those she loved best. Em was smiling at her, with Norm and Robbie at her side; Sybil, in a very wide-brimmed straw hat, Piotr and his Italian girlfriend Maria; Agnieska and the Arbuckles, who both beamed at her; and Maudie and John, who had Michael with them, in his little suit, gazing in wonder at his mother.

She walked towards the altar, ready to be wrapped in the words that would bind her and her husband together. Among those words would be her chosen psalm: ‘But thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life . . . ’ Each step drew her nearer to the end of the aisle, towards her future, where, tall and elegant in his suit, his eyes fixed on her alone, Marek was waiting.

1953

1953

‘When’s Robbie coming, Mom?

‘Oh, Michael,’ Katie said, ‘if you’ve asked me once, you’ve asked me a hundred times already!’ She was busy in the kitchen with Sybil, piling sandwiches onto trays. ‘I told you – everyone’ll be here soon.’

‘There’ll be extra dogs as well,’ Sybil remarked.

‘Will there?’ Katie looked up, a dark curl of hair hanging over her forehead.

‘Well, Joan Lester is inseparable form that Highland Terrier of hers – and Mrs Rogers never goes anywhere without her dog: you know, big black Labrador.’

‘Dogs!’ Michael went off laughing happily. ‘Auntie Agnieska doesn’t like dogs!’

‘Well, your job will be to keep them away from her. And make sure Archie doesn’t lose his temper with them!’ Katie called after him. Archie, rather an elderly dog now, was sometimes short of patience. ‘Go and see if Marek’s all right with the others, will you?’