A long time ago (1976), in a distant land far away (England) there was a young girl of fifteen. She met a handsome prince who showered her with love, cigarettes and chocolate, took her to discos and told her that she was very pretty and that he loved her – six weeks later she was pregnant. This girl was so scared….how could she tell her parents? What would happen at school? What on earth was she to do?
Her best male friend was a twin, and his name was Neil Turner. One day, while both teenagers were skipping class, Neil asked the young girl what she planned to do if the handsome prince did not want to marry her? The girl said she wasn’t sure what she would do and she was upset. But then Neil made her a vow, and he promised that if the handsome prince didn’t want to marry her, then he would marry her himself, and help raise the baby so that she wouldn’t be alone.
But the handsome prince (who later turned into the evil prince) did indeed marry the pregnant girl and carried her off to another place in the countryside. At her wedding, Neil Turner gave the girl a gift; it was a record album by Judy Collins. “Listen to this,” he said, “even though it isn’t the usual music you listen to – I think you will like it as much as I do, and it will remind you of me.”
And she did – she listened when she became a new wife, and she listened when the little baby arrived a few weeks later, and she listened when she felt alone and frightened of the evil prince, and sad for the dear friends she had left behind.
Thirty years passed by, and by this time the girl lived in America and had become a woman. One day, she was feeling nostalgic and so she searched on-line to find a London phone book. It took some time, but once she found it, she wrote down all of the names that were listed as N. Turner, and there were more than one hundred. She called each of the phone numbers until she finally heard a voice that was familiar. It was Neil! She was so happy to hear his voice, and she recounted her thirty year journey since they had last seen one another at her wedding, the day he had given her the album. The woman also told Neil that she would be visiting London very soon and wanted to see him.
And she did. She met Neil on a street corner near the underground station in West Ham, London. They hugged, they laughed at how very different they had become. Neil took her to his beautiful old town-home, and she met his partner whose name was Ron. The woman had never realized that Neil was homosexual. While Neil made them some refreshments, Ron told the woman that Neil had been very sick, that he had battled Aids-related cancer. It made the woman so sad, and she thought Neil so dignified and brave to not have even mentioned it.
They had a wonderful day together, they recounted old school stories and talked about their experiences since they had last met as teenagers. The woman spoke of the baby that Neil had offered to raise as his own, the baby that was now a man. And then she asked him how long he had known he was gay.
“Since I was about thirteen.” He answered. She took his hand and thanked him, because even though Neil Turner had not wanted a life with a woman, he had offered his to her in her time of need. He had selflessly volunteered to marry at sixteen, to rescue his best friend. It was the most honourable sacrifice he could have made.
The woman returned to America, and for a while she stayed in touch with Neil. But then one day nothing came in the mail, and her letters went unanswered, and the woman felt that perhaps something had gone very wrong for Neil Turner. She tried to find him again, but this time, she could not.
And then one day Judy Collins came to the town where the woman lived. Judy Collins was in her seventies, and the woman was now in her fifties. The woman bought tickets to go to her concert, and the seats were very close to the stage. …….
The woman was no longer a girl, and as Judy Collins sang her beautiful melodies the woman remembered the girl she had been in that land far away, and thought about the woman she had become since those days. She thought about the baby that was now a father himself, she thought about Prince Charming who had been such a dark presence in her life …….and then she thought about the kindness of a lovely boy named Neil Turner, and how, at sixteen years old, he had offered her his future. He’d been just a boy then, but he’d already become a man.
To Neil – thank you.
xx