Paradoxically Yours...

Looks like Love

('fake' 17th March 2017)

"Will you marry me?" Wal asked the lady he had been besotted with since the first time he laid eyes on her.

I was far, far away from even being a glimmer in my Dad's eye on that day, but I can picture my dear Mum, dropping her eyelashes, a maidenly blush prettily flushing her cheeks, as she murmured a most decorous 'yes'.

And so their lifetime commitment to each other continued (yes, that's right - continued. They actually met and fell in love when he was sweet 17, and my Mum? - all of 15!)

Families and friends, and all who thought they knew these two believed it would never last. "Love at first sight," they scoffed. "Doesn't happen in the real world," they laughed. "This is the kind of 'fake stuff' of those penny-dreadful romance stories," and they nodded knowingly, and laughed some more.

'They' could never have guessed this marriage would last 43 years for Dad until he unwillingly let go of life - and in my Mum's heart, continuing until her last day, 25 years later. 'They' never really knew how the Win and Wal they thought they knew, endured all the hardships common to those who lived through the Great Depression (Great? How great? Almost a whole decade of want and need - that's how 'great'!), and the fear and tragedies and losses of World War II that overwhelmed so many.

They courageously began their own business and worked tirelessly to make it a success through the toughest of times - at the same time raising a family with the highest ideals of love, honesty, loyalty and respect. They endured heartbreaks and losses that almost... but not quite, destroyed the family's emotional world. But they were survivors, and their children learned how to follow in these large footsteps.

There was nothing 'fake' in their relationship or love for each other because in that era, reality surrounded them at every turn. The photo of the 'bathing belles' I've used to begin this story is what actually inspired me.

No 'fake' tans - for the hoi polloi in Australia, anyway. Until the 1920's only the poor sported suntans - being mostly outdoor workers - in the fields, on the roads and railways, etc. Then Coco Chanel returned from an idyllic holiday sporting a golden tan and the fad was born. At first ladies employed the help of slightly used tea-bags to stain their skin (maybe a little too temporary?). The first fake tan product was apparently called 'Man Tan'. (Hmm... )

No 'fake' cleavages or g-string bikini treatments, back then. In their day, it would only have been a few years since some Australian State laws ceased dictating a neck-to-knee swimming costume. Both Mum and Dad are sporting the most up-to-the-moment woollen knitted swimming 'costumes', way before the famous 'Speedo' swimsuit that caused the complaint to the Olympic gold medallist that her swimsuit 'showed too much shoulder'.

'They' were correct. 'Fake' anythings never last the distance.