Could it really be 20 years since she last called my name? “Hello George”, said she and her voice was just as I’d remembered it all those years ago.

When we first met I could not believe that somebody like Stella would even notice me, let alone become my first real love. If only I’d been mature enough not to feel shy about my age – mid-sixteen. But I simply had to add a year on for Stella was 22 and it seemed to me a huge age gap. So, I said I was 17, and my fate was sealed.

In those long gone days it was required that young lads went into the services under conscription. With the advent of my true 17th birthday I had to face the fact that Stella would expect me to enlist. The agony of this embarrassing situation was too much; I wrote a “Dear Stella” letter, owning up to my deception. I simply could not face her again.

And yet, now I was seeing her and she spoke my name. This was something I had longed for all this time and now that time had come.