Yes, late december back in 1987, I heard this very special lady on the phone to her mum in England saying”  :I’ll be home for chriastmas, I’ll be home christmas time.   Keep the chestnuts roasting on an open fire mum, she insisted.   Those were the words of my dear darling ex-wife Elizabeth Susan  Olive from Horam, Sussex.

Yes, she had decided on the spur  of the moment that we were to marry as soon as possible as she was about to embark on a return journey home after spending five years in Swaziland and a short time in South Africa, working at Johannesburg General Hospital.   She had worked very hard as a nurse and had developed a love for the local people of Africa.    She had now left her job at Parklands Nursing Home, Durban, South Africa and was returning home to recharge her batteries and assess her future.

Yes,  it had been the best of times and it had been the worst of times.  It had been a whirlwind romance.    My foster aunt had passed away after kidney failure.   She suffered with arthritis for many years and been bed-ridden which further complicated matters very much so.   She just got worse and worse and later developed diabetes.   Elizabeth knew I had been devastated by her death and how lonely and miserable I was without my “mum” as I fondly called her.   The relationship with the rest of the family was not too good at all.

But nothing was to prepare me for this delightful English lass and her proposal.   She felt being married to her would afford me and her the opportunity of a  new beginning in England.   Of course I had to complete my degree first.   I had met Elizabeth while going for piano lessons in Currie Road, Berea, Durban.   She was extremely friendly and sociable and in no time we were romantically involved.   I agreed and thanked her profusely and couldn’t believe my ears.   I was completely ecstatic.   She really swept me off my feet.

However,  having obtained my Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Physiology  and Entry Clearance for a year, from the British Embassy, I boarded a   Luxavia flight to Heathrow, England.    It had been my sole intention of building a good life for Elizabeth and myself, and maybe later my family could join us.   It had been my first time on an aeroplane.   I left    South Afrca with a heavy heart as many in my family did not agree with my decision to marry and go overseas as they felt I was ill-prepared for life.   It was painful having to go against their decision but I felt like an alien at home and in South Africa at that time in my life.

Well sufficeth to say the marriage turned out to be a complete disaster from the start.  These long distance relationships don’t really work out.   It takes hard work,  dedication and commitment.   We both had become different people and had in the interim grown apart.   Elizabeth grew increasingly frustrated and impatient with my inability to find permanent employment especially with my autism and brain damage which didn’t help matters at all.  I worked on the agencies for a mere pittance and then finally landed a job at Northwick Park Hospital and Clinical Research Centre in Watford Road,  Harrow Middlesex.     Here, under the tutelege and guidance of a Ms Beth Tidmarsh I laboured hard to become an M.L.S.O.(medical laboratory scientific officer), in Haematology.    A very lucrative career indeed with good prospects an good money when you on call.   In those days many of the jobs in England were low paying.   I received a very small remuneration as a trainee.   But I enjoyed the job tremendously and made friends among the staff and a few residents.

Elizabeth had by now moved on and I had the daunting prospect of facing London alone.    Lonely is the man without love.   All I had were misty water-coloured memories of the way we were.   London was a joy to behold- home to  Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, Sir Thomas Hardy, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Thomas Moore to name a few.   I felt it  an honor and a priviledge to walk the same streets they probably walked.  I wasted no time visiting as many sites as possible.  It was quite a unique experience with so many people from around the world settled here,  all come to see if the streets were really paved with gold.   All seeking their fortune in probably one of the most busiest metropolis’ in the world.

Of course money was a limiting factor as things are quite costly.    As it is the world over in the capital or major cities.   I visited the Pigg and another pub, the good, the bad and the ugly.   As apart of the pub scene and the club scene which is popular among locals and tourists alike.   The scenic views in London and along the Thames were breath-taking-even the boat ride-  will remain  etched in my memory forever.   I even managed a short holiday at Brighton, Sussex.

It’s like the whole Commonwealth of Nations were here either working or living .   Some were students.  The underground is quite an experience and I will recommend it to anyone.  It’s Tower Bridge, Madame Tussards, Buckingham Palace, the Big Ben, Hyde Park, the Royal Guards.   The Beefeaters,  the London Bobby, the friendly faces of people going by.  It’s like Jerusalem of old.   People of every nation here, like the cultural hub of the world, people waiting expectantly for something to happen while Andrew Lloyd Webber played to capacity audiences every night.    You need someone special to share all this with.  Someone you can start a family with and share this rich and marvellous experience with.   A land so full of history.

Love is not too  hard to find and it’s for all intents and purposes a very romantic place.   No where else like it on earth.   However, as I was still married to Elizabeth, and we hadn’t discussed where she stood, I couldn’t pursue any new romantic interests.

Well beside the infamous London weather, everything else is just fine dandy and I’d recommend it even today to whoever wished to settle here.  It’s a beautiful country rich in history and steeped in culture and tradition.

Well my one year was over and I was due for a review.   Elizabeth was nowhere to be found.   My boss offered to help sort out my papers but I declined.   I  had decided to return.   Regrettable though the decision was I felt I had no option at the time.   I returned with a heavy heart.   My return flight was with Air Zambia.   I bid farewell to those I had grown close to and was on my way.   Fortunately the pay increase the NHI was negotiating for finally came through.    So I had a little back pay from April and was able to afford the return flight.

I left England knowing full well I’d never return no matter what.   So much had changed the world over though.   The Berlin Wall had fallen down.   The Tiannamen Square incident had lowered the bamboo curtain a bit in China   and exposed the severe oppression that existed among the people there.   Perestoika was the order of the day in USSR.   The iron curtain too was removed.   It was like a whole new world had begun.

Here in South Africa the atmosphere was electrifying, as the shackles of apartheid were coming off.   Mr Nelson Mnadela had been released from 27 years of imprisonment on Robben Island.   The exiles were in the process of returning with one agenda-to build a new free democratic country rid of the evils of apartheid.   What a landmark day that was.   As Mr Mandela had landed on South African soil   Amidst shouts of jubilation, I returned quietly and unnoticed at OR TAMBO airport.

As I watched tHe news it was as though a wave of   freedom had swept over the world.   Like we were all getting up from a long slumber.   The cold war was almost a thing of the past.   And detente was over.   The Warsaw Pact was dissolved.

In the unforgettable words of Dr Martin Luther King-it was as though we were all free at last, free at last.    And I thanked God Almighty that we were all free at last.

Now if only these shackles of the current economic crisis and other situatIons would go away.    We’d be truly  free!   What’s the chance of that happening?

Thank you.