We had so much to pack into these two weeks. We had our 3D scan, and a few days break in London. Sadly one of H's good friends had died before he came home on leave. He was able to attend his funeral, and asked if I could join him.
I had only met this friend once, and that was in passing. I had dropped H to a local supermarket car park for his friend to pick him up and take him back to camp. The only thing I remember was his friend taking a wrong turning off the roundabout, driving towards my house not the motorway. I giggled the whole time, as I was driving behind them. A quick U-turn and a beep and they were gone (in the right direction I hoped).
During the service I did not know whether to show H sympathy, or leave him be. I stood next to H, but did not hold his hand or touch him in any way. I watched from the corner of my eye his hands shake and the quick movement of wiping away tears. I did not show that I could see, I thought it best that I let him deal with it in his own way. The last thing he needed was sympathy, and me hanging off him. Even though I did not know this soldier who had died, I still cried. To see his parents, his sisters, they all stood there so proud. I heard funny stories of the soldiers cheeky, drunken antics. RIP young soldier.
We had our 3D scan. H was very excited to see him son in putty form (that's how it looked to us). The lady who did the scan was lovely. She double checked the baby's sex for us, and he was definitely a boy. He was very cheeky, it took a while for the little scamp to move his hands from his face. But there he was, he was beautiful. H was so pleased to have had the opportunity to see his baby inside the womb. He would speak to my bump, and kiss it. We had our name, now we just had to wait to meet him. I still prayed every night for H to be home safe, and in time for baby's birth. Homecoming date was forever changing, one moment it was before my due date, then it was after. There was no telling when it would be.
Our trip to London was lovely. We wondered around Covent Garden, and ate lovely meals out. As H was previously based in Wellington Barracks (next door to Buckingham Palace), he knew all the nice places to go. He took me to a comedy club that was one of his favourites, then we ate a gorgeous steak in Sophie's Steakhouse. Our London trip was almost over, R and R was almost over. I did not want either to end. It was almost time for another goodbye, and I could not bare the thought of watching him go again.
Once we arrived back in Cardiff we were in no rush to go back to the house, so instead we decided to extend our alone time by going down Cardiff Bay for a few drinks. H took me into a bar called Terra Nova. He ordered our drinks, mine was a lime and soda water. He then led me up the stairs, and then up some more stairs to the top of the building where there was a "crows nest". As the pubs decor was based around a ship, there of course would be a large round platform named "The Crows Nest". Confeniently the nest was empty. We looked through the windows at the view, I could see my home town across the waters. We sat on high bar stools. As I admired the view, H stood up from his stool and then got down on one knee. I looked down at him, my smile beaming. He held out the most gorgeous white gold ring, and an amazing centre diamond, with four smaller diamonds on each side lining the front of the rings band. "Kirsty, will you marry me?" he asked sheepishly. "YES" of course the answer was yes, the ring was gorgeous for a start, and I loved him very much. He stood up rather sharpish, even though there was no one around he was petrified.
There was no doubt in my mind that H was the man I wanted to marry. Even though I knew he had no plans to leave the army, I accepted that this would be my life for a long time. As long as I had him I was happy. Oh my gosh, I now had a wedding to plan!
Another goodbye! I thought this time it would be easier, as it was time to countdown to his return from this tour for good, but it was still hard. R and R felt like the Army was teasing me. 'Here he is for a couple of weeks, but we'll be snatching him back'! At least I now had a few things to concentrate on - A) Our baby boy B) Our wedding, and C) The countdown.
A few years before meeting H, I had my cards read. A few of the things said had proved to be true, but these were vague comments that, I suppose, could apply to numerous situations. 'A powerful man would try to make you do something that you do not want to do' - My son's fathers dad tried making me have an abortion. 'A hospital bed' but no leads as to why this was there - The unplanned pregnancy of my first son, I did not have the easiest pregnancy as I developed pre-eclampsia which resulted in numerous months of hospital visits and stays. 'You will marry a man in uniform' - Well, J's father was a mechanic, but aspired to join the fire service, "could that be it?" I had thought. Little did I know that my man in uniform would be in bright red with a "muff" on his head (the lovely Bearskin)! She had predicted my marriage to my soulmate. He was the one.
No comments:
Post a Comment