My First Girlfriend

(Pic; Diane Arbus.) (I am not in this pic.)

Her name was Josie Coady.
She had come from the U.K. to stay with her Auntie Rosy for the summer.
Rosy lived right across the street fom us.
A big jolly lady, always clothed in a floral housecoat.
One of my favourite neighbours.
She never had her own kids, but did adopt the bestest of my friends!

Anyway, Josie arrived , and instantly we fell in love.
She was staying for eight weeks!
And we spent most of those sixty plus days together!
And it was magic.
And then she had to go home.
Tragic, heartbreak!
But she swore she would return.

We swore to write, and she did.
And I replied.
For weeks, months even!

But sometimes absence does not make the heart grow fonder!
And the miles between us severed the love.

She did come back the following summer.
And we hardly had a smile to pass between us when we met.
But that year had made us both so much older.
More aware of life.
More mature!

That year we both turned Eight.