The Explanation by Steven Colman - HTML preview

On the 27th April 2004, in the presence of my children, 2 of my 7 grandchildren and my cousin and husband, Valentina and I were married in a Registry Office.

Those of you, who read my story, know that I consider myself lucky in every way. I survived the war, enjoyed living in England, married a wonderful girl, had two lovely kids, both of whom grew into useful and successful citizens and have their own lovely families while I lived happily in Australia with my loving and loved wife. I even considered good the way and the time, when our Joy left us, as it ended her sufferings. Thus I considered myself lucky these past 78 years and it seems that my luck has not deserted me now that I met and married Valentina. As years go bye I hope that I will not disappoint her either. She deserves the best especially from me, for whose love she left her family and friends to come and live in a faraway country.

Valentina seems to be quite happy in her new country and enjoys her Australian citizenship. She insists that she enjoys being my wife in spite of the 34 years between us. She would have liked to get a job, (she graduated as an electronics engineer and was employed in Russia as a software writer) but I prefer for us to enjoy our life together and so she turned to learn and practice cake decorating. She became quite an expert and every time she entered a competition she always was awarded first price. Maybe one day she will enjoy her art and make a living as a cake decorator !

We had some wonderful trips in Europe, including 3 visits to Hungary and 4 to England. We visited USA, Canada and New Zealand since our wedding and she visits every year her parents and grown up children, both of who came to visit us in Australia. We visited Africa (one day) and went to Guatemala to my eldest granddaughter’s wedding and (of course) to deliver the wedding cake.