This Is Your Life Read Free Page A

that lay in front of them? For the first time she contemplated the enormity of what she was committing to, and that’s when something shifted.  Barely perceptibly at first…  But it was that question, the one that she couldn’t quite bring herself to answer.  W as Jamie really the man she wanted to share her life with ?  It floated in the air, unanswered.
     
    As Lizzie poured herself a large glass of wine, she looked again at the beautiful earrings she’d borrowed from Katie - then suddenly remembered a bracelet that had been her mother’s.
    In the bedroom, she pulled a chair over to the vast wardrobe, and climbing up, reached for the topmost shelf where pushed out of sight was a wooden box.  Modest looking, its contents were priceless - at least to Lizzie – of photos, letters, precious bits of her life. 
    It was almost exactly a year since the last time, when she’d tucked away a few treasured items.  Dragging it out now, Lizzie sat on the floor.  Whether déjà-vu or just plain nerves, her hands were trembling as she opened it, finding her mother’s old jewellery box and underneath it, a notebook, a journal her mother had kept until her illness prevented her from writing.  It had been far too painful to read at the time and Lizzie had left it - out of sight, out of mind. 
    A whole year . How can that be?    Holding the notebook had triggered a wave of memories - not all good ones either.  It had been the toughest thing Lizzie had ever done, seeing her mother through the appointments, the treatment and watching the decline that followed.  And the end… That was still a no-go area.  Far too distressing to think about.
    Lizzie studied the notebook , taking in the daisies on the front - her mother had loved them.  Then starting to turn the pages, before she got any further an envelope slipped out and landed in her lap. Picking it up, she turned it over. 
    And that was when she forgot all about the events of today.  It didn’t occur to her that if Jamie hadn’t gone to his conference, she wouldn’t even be sitting here like this.  Nor that the events of the entire day had in some obscure way been tipping her off balance.   All that mattered at that precise moment was the letter and with shaky hands she opened it. 

Chapter 2
     
    Dearest Lizzie
     
    I hope that maybe the dust is settling – enough at least for you to start to move on.  Because at some point, after all that’s happened, that’s what you have to do.
    Think for a moment:  here you are in the middle of your greatest adventure – your life!  Or maybe somewhere along the way you lost sight of that… I know, you have to work, pay the bills, but...
    You have choices.  Never forget that.  Imagine for a moment, if you were granted three wishes, Lizzie.  What in your life is most in need of change? What do you most need?  Freedom, maybe?  What a gift that would be! Remember, Lizzie – you are as free as you choose to be.
    There’s a place in the West Country.  It’s known to the locals as Spriggan Point.  You’ve been there before, with me, many years ago. I can’t remember who told me about it, just that there’s a magic to be found there which heals the broken spirit.  And you can feel it, Lizzie, even when the fog rolls in off the ocean and you can’t see one step in front of you, but it’s in the wind touching your skin, the spray from waves crashing on the rocks, even the sand underfoot.  It reaches into your soul until you, too, can’t help but feel part of something bigger.  What I found there never left me.
    Maybe you need its magic too, Lizzie.  I’ll leave a map with this letter.  There’s a farm nearby, where we stayed – Roscarn, if I remember rightly.  And don’t let anything stop you.  Let it weave its spell on you too, before you do something you regret.  
    D on’t be upset when you read this.  None of us go on forever!  Life has been great!  Make sure you have a great life