Hello Alina. I’ve followed your Dante posts since the beginning. Your story today touched so many similarities in my life story that I thought I would respond. I’m a generation older than you, 76. I’ve lived in California most of my life. I’ve read the Divine Comedy three times now, the last time on the treadmill at the gym. I didn’t know anything about it but was just called to read it 20 years ago and Dante has been a constant companion ever since. My wife, Sue, was English. Although raised as a Jewish red diaper child in London, she was always marching to a different drummer. She came to San Francisco in the mid 70’s. We met as roommates on Haight and Ashbury where she was living in a room promised to me. Ha.
In our early days we took a class on the Tarot and later when traveling in Italy with our two young children, Sue gave tarot readings to the Italian women in the little Adriatic coastal town where we were staying. They spoke no English and Sue no Italian. It was something.
In our early courting days Sue was expelled from the States for an expired visa while she was with a traveling Shakespeare company. I went to England and we were married in Cambridge on April 1st, which seemed to us an auspicious day. She was working in a theatre in education company in Newcastle and we lived there for awhile waiting for her papers. It was totally exotic to me coming from Santa Barbara. We both developed a deep affection for the North. In 2017 we made our last trip to the UK while she was in remission and had a deeply moving experience in Durham Cathedral. Last year I went back and sprinkled her ashes in the grass of the cloisters there.
Your description of how your relationship started and developed moved me. Very similar to mine. And mine developed into an easy partnership in so many domains over 40 years. I’ve always been a jeweler and the last 25 years Sue and I had a jewelry store that now my son and daughter (both retired ballet dancers) are running. The last six months of her life were perhaps the most intimate, strangely.
Hi Carl! what a beautiful comment, thank you so much for sharing it with me - I read it to Matt this morning and it brought us both so much joy. Sue sounds like a great lady and she was so lucky to spend her life with someone who appreciated her this much. And you were both lucky to have each other for such a long time. I can only hope for the same for my own relationship. Sending you love x
in an internet landscape full of bitter, scared, jaded “dating advice”, I really appreciate when the non-terrible people who are in the non-terrible relationships take time to tell us what it’s like :) you two sound lovely, happy anniversary!
Very beautiful, Alina, and very moving. It spoke to me because I, too, took a long time to understand that I deserve to be chosen, to be put first, to be cared for. And I needed the reminder today. So thank you!
Hello Alina. I’ve followed your Dante posts since the beginning. Your story today touched so many similarities in my life story that I thought I would respond. I’m a generation older than you, 76. I’ve lived in California most of my life. I’ve read the Divine Comedy three times now, the last time on the treadmill at the gym. I didn’t know anything about it but was just called to read it 20 years ago and Dante has been a constant companion ever since. My wife, Sue, was English. Although raised as a Jewish red diaper child in London, she was always marching to a different drummer. She came to San Francisco in the mid 70’s. We met as roommates on Haight and Ashbury where she was living in a room promised to me. Ha.
In our early days we took a class on the Tarot and later when traveling in Italy with our two young children, Sue gave tarot readings to the Italian women in the little Adriatic coastal town where we were staying. They spoke no English and Sue no Italian. It was something.
In our early courting days Sue was expelled from the States for an expired visa while she was with a traveling Shakespeare company. I went to England and we were married in Cambridge on April 1st, which seemed to us an auspicious day. She was working in a theatre in education company in Newcastle and we lived there for awhile waiting for her papers. It was totally exotic to me coming from Santa Barbara. We both developed a deep affection for the North. In 2017 we made our last trip to the UK while she was in remission and had a deeply moving experience in Durham Cathedral. Last year I went back and sprinkled her ashes in the grass of the cloisters there.
Your description of how your relationship started and developed moved me. Very similar to mine. And mine developed into an easy partnership in so many domains over 40 years. I’ve always been a jeweler and the last 25 years Sue and I had a jewelry store that now my son and daughter (both retired ballet dancers) are running. The last six months of her life were perhaps the most intimate, strangely.
Thanks for your essay. It moved me to share this.
Hi Carl! what a beautiful comment, thank you so much for sharing it with me - I read it to Matt this morning and it brought us both so much joy. Sue sounds like a great lady and she was so lucky to spend her life with someone who appreciated her this much. And you were both lucky to have each other for such a long time. I can only hope for the same for my own relationship. Sending you love x
Loved this Alina!! And I’m so happy for you!!
thank you pal x
in an internet landscape full of bitter, scared, jaded “dating advice”, I really appreciate when the non-terrible people who are in the non-terrible relationships take time to tell us what it’s like :) you two sound lovely, happy anniversary!
awww thanks, happy to spread the word x
Very beautiful, Alina, and very moving. It spoke to me because I, too, took a long time to understand that I deserve to be chosen, to be put first, to be cared for. And I needed the reminder today. So thank you!
This makes me so happy Naomi! you do deserve to be chosen and cared for, so I'm glad to provide this little reminder xx