At the start of last year, a new neighbour arrived in our villagea man in his sixties. Hed always been a city dweller, studied at a technical college, and worked as an engineer. Had his wife still been alive, I imagine he would have carried on living in the city, but his children eventually forced him out of the flatthey wanted to sell it and split the money. The children managed to find a small cottage in our village for next to nothing and moved their father here.
Everyone in our village is decent, and we did whatever we could to help our new resident settle in. I used to bring him firewood, and Mary, who lived just opposite, would often share potatoes, beetroot, and jars of preserves. Id noticed that the two of them began spending more and more time together, even last spring, but I just put that down to their being of a similar age. So, I wasnt the least bit surprised when the old chap suddenly announced he wanted to marry Marythat hed fallen in love. Mary felt the same, and they both started talking about wedding plans.
To my knowledge, Mary has children and grandchildren in the neighbouring villages, and the old chaps only relatives are in the city. Neither family was at all supportive of their sudden decision to marry. Folk round here are set in their ways and think Marys too old to remarry, as if shes dishonouring her late husbands memory. The old fellows family, for their part, suspect Marys only after his house…
But the two of them paid no mind to the opinions of their children and organised the wedding themselves. Everyone in the village came together to lay out a fine spread for them. Now, they live together at Marys, though the old chap has no intention of selling his cottage. He wants to leave that to his children. Odd, really, they never gave him a thought, but he cant stop thinking of their future. And Mary is the samealways putting the kids first, as though her own needs dont count for anything.
It makes me sad that theyre too frightened to tell their families about the wedding. After all, they did this for themselves. Does it really matter what the children say? Whats done is done, and really, all we can do now is be glad that two people, even in their later years, have managed to find love and purpose again.
