When Alison’s husband died in 2010, she wrote to one of his oldest friends to let him know. Although she had never met Michael she knew he had been a close friend of her partner and, sure enough, he immediately wrote back. As well as reminiscing about her husband, Alison and Michael – now 83 and 92 – opened up about their own lives, too. “We shared our history and I learned that Mike played the violin and flute,” says Alison. “At Christmas he told me he was dancing round the kitchen to Bach with my letter in his hands.”
“Alison’s letters were something to look forward to,” says Michael, who at the time was living in Sheffield and caring for his wife, who had dementia. “I was very busy and only used to take two hours a week for myself. She was so nice and we had a lot in common. We soon discovered we had the same values and politics.”
