The Highest Love
To my wonderful wife on your 60th Birthday
60 years on the planet and luckily 44 of them spent with me.
Looking back, our life seems a bit like one long-running property show! From Common Hall Street to Cheyney Road to Brook Lane to Hoole Road to Windleshaw Road (with the occasional Speakman Road) to Warrington Road to Higher Ashton to Highfield Road to Tower College (later coupled with Riverside Close) to finally finding sanctuary in The Parklands. And we still haven’t opened some of the boxes when we moved out of Warrington Road!
Whilst I’m talking about homes, I’d like this website to be our digital home. I’ll keep filling it with all the ‘remember whens’ and the ‘I can’t believe we did thats.’ But enough about that because today is December 29th, and today isn’t about the past or the future—it’s about you, who makes every day worth recording in the first place.
So 44 years is about enough time to work out what makes a person really special. There’s been so many times when I did as shouldn’t – crazy finacial decisions – even crazier DIY projects, total lapses in common sense and ill-judged comments to someone (lots of those). Yet you always have selfless way of making me feel ok when really I shouldn’t. That’s a really special talent!
Like the Geographer in The Little Prince, I think I spent too much time pursuing things that were never ‘matters of consequence’ while you spent yours teaching our children to see the things that aren’t visible at all. Even though the answer was staring me in the face when I read my favourite book, I found it difficult to do what comes so naturally to you – it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. When I look at Mark and Beth, I don’t just see our kids; I see the living embodiment of that truth. They move through the world with a kindness, fairness, justness (if that word exists and if it doesn’t – it should) and a depth that you can’t pick up from a textbook. They see the ‘essential’ things—the beauty in a quiet moment, the value of a helping hand, and more importantly than anything else, the strength of a soft heart. They see these things because you showed them where to look. Without you, they may have only ever seen with their eyes; because of you, they see with their hearts, and that is the greatest gift of all.
They have grown into very special teachers and any children coming across them will be all the better for it. Like you, I am so proud to see Mark as the Assistant Principal at Tower College, and Beth as an English teacher at Prior Park in Gibraltar, following the magnificent interview where the Head of English sang her praises.
I am so often reminded of those Taylor Swift lines: I have an excellent father, his strength is making me stronger… God smiles on my little brother, inside and out he’s better than I am. But we both know they are better than I am because they have so much of you in them.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
8 More Reasons to Love Eileen
- For the ‘New Year, New Adventure’ energy you bring to 2026.
- For being the only person that wants to play golf with me.
- For the promise of slower mornings and longer lunches together.
- Because there’s nobody else I’d rather get “lost” with.
- For the next 60 years of memories we’re about to start.
- For the fact that the best is truly yet to come.
- Because you’re my wife, my best friend, and my world.
- Because 60 years of Eileen isn’t enough—I want 60 more.
To me, fair friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I eyed, Such seems your beauty still.
All my love,
MT xxx