Chapter 1 – The Beginning

I'm David Fraser. Please bear with me for a bit as I set the scene for you and
tell you how the lives were of my wife Peggy and my own were intertwined, and
how our daughters helped me when Peggy died suddenly. I need to go back quite
a ways to properly set the scene so things will make sense.

My parents met, married and eventually moved to a mid-sized city on the east
coast where they moved into house in a suburban neighbourhood. They soon were
please to discover that the couple in the adjacent house were close to their
age and like them recently married. They soon became fast friends and as is
often the case both couples were soon awaiting a 'bundle of joy'. Peggy (the
neighbour's girl) and I were born only a few months apart and since there were
few other children in our neighbourhood, as we grew up, we wound up becoming
playmates and got along very well.

Things went on this way until we were about eleven when my father got a job
offer that he couldn't refuse and we moved out west. Contact was maintained
between the two couples, first with letters and then as the years went by, by
just an annual Christmas card with an enclosed letter. One year there was no
card and letter, nor was there any the next year and my folks assumed that for
some reason, the connection between us had disappeared and the third year, no
card was sent to Peggy's family. Unbeknownst to us, Peggy's mother had been
killed in a car crash and her father was having difficulty dealing with
things.

I grew up, went to college and got an engineering degree and eventually wound
up working for a smallish firm. While I was in high school and college I dated
a number of girls and enjoyed being with them. I'd also had a few 'one night
stands' both in college and after when I was out on my own but nothing ever
clicked and I never had a steady girl-friend. There always seemed to be
something missing but I didn't quite know what.

The firm I went to work for was located in a business park and had several
buildings clustered together so while we were all acquainted with the staff in
buildings other than the one we worked in, we often didn't really know much
about many of the folks who worked in the other buildings. I'd been working
for the firm for a few years when one day as I was leaving work I noticed a
new face, a young woman about my age, and being single, paid more than just a
moment of time looking at her. As she was walking away from me, I couldn't see
her face but for some reason, I felt some attraction to her. The next day I
asked around about her and eventually found out where she worked. Of course I
got a lot of razzing 'Oh, looking for a girl-friend, are you?' etc.