I’ve already told how I first met Len after being single for a long time. Here is the story of the first date.

We had first met at a dance, but I decided it was too soon after the death of his wife and he liked me a bit too much. But after a few months I agreed to go on our first proper date. Len wasn’t the sort of person that was my fantasy of a date. My fantasy was someone a bit arty, a slick dresser, good haircut, witty. Here opposite me was my mother’s fantasy of a date. Jewish, a doctor, older than me. He was bald and dressed like an old man in colours that suck colour like beige and mud. He was bald, 15 years older than me. But he had the kindest, wisest, most beautiful eyes. I said “It’s our first date so let’s tell the stories of our life for the first 18 years. He agreed and said I should go first. I said I was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1952 into a Jewish family. My mother was a dressmaker and worked days and father was a telephone operator and worked nights. Somehow, they had 3 daughters. There was a tragedy when I was three and a half when my older sister, aged 8, was killed in a road accident. And this and that happened, and I left home aged 18 to go to college.

Then I said, “It’s your turn” His first sentence was “I was born in Krakow, Poland in 1937”. In my mind I though “Oh my goodness, 2 years before Hitler marched in and all that happened in the occupation” But what I actually said was “That was a very interesting time and place for a little Jewish boy to be born”. Then followed many stories of little Len’s life as a refugee. 1 September as Hitler marched in Len’s dad and mother and family got a horse a cart and went east to Ukraine then to USSR. Then a life of a refugee that went from Siberia to Tajikistan to Kazakhstan. Then after the war ended back to Poland for a few years. But the antisemitism was so terrible they went to Israel in 1949. A new country then Israel was very hard, and Len’s father was a pharmacist and somehow got a job in Ethiopia to be Hailie Selassie’s pharmacist. That ended 18 months later, and they ended up in Kenya where Len was 15. He studied for his exams and got a scholarship to Birmingham in the UK and finally ended his stateless status and he became a British citizen.

So here he is, the lovely Len, with 2 children and 2 grandchildren. I was right about the eyes. He is a wise, thoughtful, caring delightful friend, ally and lover. This year he celebrates his 86 birthday.