You’ll Never Believe What Happened Last Week…

… I mean you couldn’t make it up!

So, the background to the story is that my advancing years are taking a toll on my body and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to walk and get involved in activities that once made me feel alive. Yes, I’ve followed the recipe -

Eat good nutritious food;

Exercise Daily;

Drink Plenty of Water;

Develop good healthy friendships (that one hasn’t been quite so wonderful!)

Keep a positive attitude (very easy!)

learn something new everyday;

Given all that, I still have problems walking.

So. I said to my daughter : “How do you fancy going on a mini-cruise? There’s a cruise ship sailing from Southampton, (UK) to Bruges in Belgium.”

We looked at the details on the website; it’s just a trial run to see if it would work for me, I told her.

Well, she was ecstatic — after all the terrible weather we’ve been having, it sounded wonderful. So I booked the cruise and waited with enthusiasm for the date of departure.

The ship was magnificent — we had a twin berth and in no time at all, we felt like we were on holiday.

On the first full day, she wheeled me into the lift and a man standing at the back said “Hi! Fancy seeing you here!” Hi wife had her back turned talking to some other passengers, and when she turned round she yelled “KERRY, oh, it’s so great to see you!” She threw her arms around my daughter and gave her a long affectionate hug.

I looked quizzically at her and she said “I’ll tell you later.”

When we were in a quiet place she told me her ex-partner was on the ship with his new girlfriend. She was very happy that he’d moved on and was no longer stalking her.

It turns out that the group of them were booked on another cruise which had been cancelled, so they decided to book this one.

As a boring old person, I kept saying “What are the chances of that!”

She went off to track him down, because she didn’t want them meeting by chance and found him quite easily. Then she went to speak to his friends.

His friends were not aware of how he was messing her around to settle their financial matters. He was renting out his own house and living in their joint property — which meant that he was making lots of money from his arrangements but wouldn’t pay out her share and be a decent guy about it all — does that sound familiar?

Once again, he promised to sort it out. However, this time he was starting to lose respect from his peers.

It was clearly the formula that was needed, because he has now secured financing to settle things with her.

Later, when I told my brother this story, he opened up about a very sad period in his life. His marriage broke down and his wife (now ex-wife) was hell bent on revenge.

He'd moved out of the family home and she started running up huge bills.

Eventually, the house sold and they agreed a settlement. After paying solicitors a huge amount from the equity, there was very little money left for either of them.

It's taken my brother years to rebuild his life, however this part of his life will always be a regret.

The only people who win in these circumstances are the lawyers.

Thank you for reading to …

The End