<span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: comic sans ms;"><br/>(Handwritten letter posted from Hampshire, England and sent to the US)<br/>Kat<br/><br/>I know it’s been a long time since you heard from me, about ten years in fact but your last letter seemed final.  You said you had met someone and moved on, after all it was difficult maintaining a relationship when we were so far apart separated by an ocean.  I had plans to visit you that summer and was trying to save up but work didn’t pay as well back then and I think we really needed to see each other more often than we did after I moved back to the UK.<br/><br/>Time passes however and things change and I expect you are wondering why on earth I should be writing to you at this time, an old flame dredging up a past life that you might have thought, hoped  or possibly feared buried. Its only in the last three months that events have unfolded.<br/><br/>Unfortunately in January my mother died, dad died last year and I know she gave up a little hope at that point and mercifully the end was painless and swift and she slipped away in her sleep.  I hope you are still blessed with both your parents, cherish them and the years they have left, I regret not talking more to them now and their past, there was so much to learn.<br/>Eventually I had to clear out the house in order for the probate sale to go ahead. I discovered a number of things.  The first were some love letters my father sent to my mother when he was aboard,  he did national service and was posted out to Asia, possibly Malaysia but it was unclear from his letters.   They were sweet and I almost forgot them until I cleared my old room and found your letters to me, I didn’t have a copy of the letters I sent to you but I reread everyone of yours and haven’t stopped thinking about what to do about it for the last two weeks, I don’t think I ever stopped thinking about you over the last ten years. The year we had together in the US was probably the happiest of my life and I know you wanted me to stay but I felt I needed to finish my education  back home and I was never much of a risk taker and I couldn’t ask you to come over to the UK either, it would have been too much for you. Maybe I should have done, I’m sorry if that was the case but I’m wasn’t sure then what we would have done over here and I’m not sure your family would have approved.<br/><br/>I digress, it’s easy to when reminiscing so I’ll keep this letter brief, I wanted to get in touch, to see how you are, to see if you want to converse, by letter at least.  Just to share happy memories (I hope they were happy for you, most of them anyway) and catch up, almost like a corny school re-union without the face to face angst.<br/><br/>Yours<br/><br/>Ben <br/><br/> </span><br/><br/>