Ginny has been my friend and ally for probably (though I’m not completely sure of timings) around ten years or so. We became friends when we started to work as a team after I needed a new person to work with me because my sandwich student had gone back to college for her final year.
Before that, I knew her to say ‘good morning’ to as I passed her in the reception area of our company’s building, because she was the receptionist at the time. My relationship with her was preceded by two other relationships with her family – her Mum, Wendy, worked in our team at the time and her little sister ‘Manda spent the holidays while she was at Uni working in the team too. ‘Manda once stuffed 500 packs of a well-known cold sore cream into jiffy bags for me on a project many years ago. These days she is a high-flier in an oil company.
I wrote a job ad for a replacement for my student, making the post a full-time one and Wendy, Ginny’s Mum approached me and asked if I thought she’d be in with a chance. Well, I didn’t need asking twice because I knew that if she’d had half of the brain-power of her Mum and her sibling, she’d be brilliant at the job I needed her to do. The rest, as they say, is history. She has risen and risen in the organisation and is now so highly regarded in the industry and so valued at the office that I am at a loss for words.
Ginny turned into every bit the person I expected her to work-wise but I never expected to become such close friends with her. We just hit it off. So, for many a year, we have shared each other’s hopes and aspirations. We have seen one-another through bad times and good.
When I managed to pluck up courage to leave my husband and strike out on my own, unbeknown to me she was watching my progress and plotting her own escape from an equally unhappy marriage. She took the wind out of my sails when she left her husband and managed to get him to agree to a divorce in months, whereas I’d had to settle for a two-year separation to get my divorce. It seemed to me at the time that she’d been able to get her own life back on its feet much more quickly than I had.
We had so many happy times then. We’d always be able to prop one another up because when I was on the crest of my wave, she would often be in a trough. Equally, when she stood proudly atop hers, I’d be down and blue. We hauled one another out of the abyss more often than either of us cares to recall if truth be told.
I started seeing David and she swore she’d never settle down again or marry again. I was ‘loved up’ and she was fired up in an entirely different way. She was making sure her two children didn’t go hungry or without the pleasures that every teenage girl needs. She threw herself into work and worked like a mad thing to earn herself respect and promotion. She succeeded on every count. She knows what it’s like to have nothing and she knows how to graft and stick with it to get what she wants in the end.
She met Nigel. I could tell she was keen because we were having a girlie night getting ready for the work Christmas Party and while I was trolling around plastering on the make-up, she was reading and re-reading an email from him, trying to interpret each sentence and see what he might be thinking. (And I’d been there a year earlier with DM.)
In three short months, this cherished friend of mine will walk down the aisle and marry Nigel. It will be a great day. I hadn’t ever had the pleasure of meeting him – his work schedule and mine have made getting together almost impossible.
Today though, we went to see the wedding venue they have chosen. A beautiful old house that has been made into an hotel in the depths of the Sussex countryside. Its beautiful oak-panelled rooms and stained glass windows will make being their photographers easy. It will be hard to fail them. Not that we have any fear of that with DM and I sharing this important role for them.
Nigel? Well, what can I say. I felt at a distinct disadvantage to him, having found out some time ago that he’s an avid reader of my daily ramblings so he ‘knew’ me much better than I him. He clearly adores Ginny and the two of them looked so happy as they showed us around the venue for their special day. Not only that but he was chatting away to David as though they were old friends within minutes of meeting. I got my chance to find out about this man who has so comprehensively captured the heart of my friend over lunch – a plain cheese sandwich for me – I’m still VERY queasy! He turned out to be lovely, very down-to-earth and very friendly.
Ginny and Nigel will be happy. It is clear to see. My friend is loved and cared for by a man who deserves her, what more could I want for her.
More shots from today can be seen here!
Two years ago, I was pondering on an enigma and last year I was torturing poor old David with yet another innovative way to cook that half-hundredweight of courgettes.
