My first love...

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He was gentle, strong and kind.
Tall, dark and handsome, always singing.
We'd only met each other a mere six weeks before I stayed the night on his boat.
She was a classic launch berthed at the bottom of his parents garden.
It was his happy-go-lucky charm that won me over.
I was fed warm milk and cried myself to sleep.
The engine was noisy and so were the sea planes overhead..



He never told me he loved me, but I knew he did,
And even though I haven't seen him for nearly twenty years, I sometimes hear myself singing the songs he sung to me...
'Around the world, I searched for you, I traveled on, when hope was gone, to seek a rendezvous...' 
- We won't be going boating or eating cake on his 93rd birthday today,
But we know, and we remember - the love of a father and his four girls...

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