With and Without

Rhona Sometimes Used To Say To Me That Meeting Me As She Did When I Was Only Twenty-Five She Had Had The Best Years Of My Life. Truer Word Was Never Spoken. While She (To My Life-Long Shame Remorse And Regret) Unquestionably Had Some Of The Worst Of Me I Like To Think I Hope That She Also Had — Such As It Is — All Of The Best Of Me. I Was Twenty-Five When We Met And Forty-Six When She Died. That’S A Hefty Chunk Of An Important Period Of Anybody’S Life And Rhona Had It. For All Its Lows As Well As Highs The Downs As Well As The Ups — What Else Can You Expect For Two People Together Almost All The Time For Twenty-One Years? — What Rhona And I Had What We Created Was A Life. And She Was Whatever Anybody Else Says Or Thinks Despite My Grievous Mistakes The Centre Of Mine. There Are No Perfect People In This World But Sometimes — Just Sometimes — Two People Can Be Perfect For Each Other.