Number Four Rowland's Park
Dear old Doris Penney wasn't that old at all.
She was just the sort of genteel lady about whom people said...dear...and sweet, but there was a lot more to
Doris than even close acquaintances knew.
Towards the end of the 1950's she had been the 'it' girl, beautiful, with honey colored bobbed hair, she had
collected more than her fair share of admirers and was seldom without a date or a party to go to...everybody wanted
to be seen with ... wanted to be, Doris Penney.
At the age of nineteen, Doris had met and fallen in love with a very distinguished gentleman named Geoff.
Geoff Smythe was the editor of a consumer magazine and mixed in very influential circles so the love struck Doris
was to be seen dining in some very plush restaurants, not bad for a girl who had been brought up in a little and
very ordinary house on a small development.
For two years Geoff and Doris were inseparable, her parents grew to admire their only daughter's life partner
and though nothing was mentioned, it was expected that one day soon, the sound of wedding bells might be heard!
Geoff was extremely well thought of in his profession and was fast gaining recognition as a very competent editor;
so much so that he had been approached by a well known daily newspaper who were willing to increase his already
substantial salary considerably in a bid to have him work for them.
Within three months Geoff was well ensconced in his new job and spending much more time working away...some weeks,
Doris didn't get to see him at all!
On the increasingly rare times that Geoff was free to take Doris out socially, he would talk about nothing more
than his new-found friends and on a few occasions, he had put her down when she had regaled him with her own day's
happenings.
One week Geoff went away for four days to Liverpool ...he would always phone her when he couldn't get to see
her, this time though, she didn't hear from him until the day before he was due to return home.
When he spoke to her he had seemed very distant, Doris, being so excited to actually hear his voice had pushed
any doubts she might have had to the back of her mind...he was probably tired or overworked.
The following Saturday, there was a dinner and dance in the local town. It was to be quite an important occasion
and Doris was at long last to meet many of Geoff's new colleagues.
Her mother had helped her to make a beautiful ball-gown in ping organza and her friend Hellen had done her hair
in an elegant chignon.
Doris's parents had tears in their eyes when they saw her, she looked so gorgeous, but funnily, when Geoff arrived
to pick her up, he seemed distracted and barely seemed to notice her outfit.
On the way to the venue, he pulled over and stopped the car.
He told Doris that although he still cared for her, he was no longer in love with her...he had met another woman;
actually she worked alongside him...it had just happened!
Doris had run from the car, the tears running down her cheeks...some said that from that moment Doris Penney
changed significantly, she lost all her sparkle and love of life. The life, which she had once thought was mapped
out for her, had gone for good. She spent her life caring for her parents, who were in a sense, as broken hearted
as their daughter. When both her parents died, within two years of each other, she had sold their house and bought
a little flat in Rowland Park, still single and still broken hearted.
Doris didn't have a lot of spare money after she had bought the essentials...food...toiletries etc, but she still
found time for her one love, which was music.
Many times the other residents would hear the mellow tones of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Matt Munro ringing
out from her flat.
Doris would lose herself in her own world, the one where nothing bad happened and nobody ever let you down.
She loved her home, her neighbors and everything about Rowland Park, Doris had good taste and the flat was peppered
with ornaments, good ones too, that she had gazed at when she was a tiny girl at home with her beloved parents.
The flat was spotlessly clean and always full of fresh flowers for, although there was a lot of sadness within
this lady, there was also a good deal of 'love for life' just waiting to be unleashed.
Doris would go on a daily basis to the library to indulge in her passion for romantic fiction...romance, yes
it was just fiction to her.
She put on her jacket and picked up her handbag, letting herself out of her home Doris walked to the front door,
pausing to say hello to Jessica, that nice young girl from flat three.
In the space of twenty minutes she was in the little library, which was quite full today.
Doris walked slowly along the aisle, which housed her favorite books...she was just about to select her first
choice when...bang!
She looked quickly to where the noise had come from, just along from her, a man of perhaps seventy had dropped
a whole pile of reading matter on the polished tiled floor.
"I am so terribly sorry, you almost jumped out of you skin," he said apologetically.
"Please don't give it another thought" said Doris generously
The man introduced himself as Henry Jacobson, he explained that he had lost his wife seven years previously and
that the library had been a real comfort to him.
Doris found out that he lived not too far from Rowland's Park and so, after selecting her books she walked with
Henry towards their respective homes. They chatted all the way and she found out that he had been a double bass
player in a dance band; they also realized that they shared a common interest in Sinatra ballads.
Henry made a remark about a husband and Doris told him that she had never married...far to busy for that, she
told him, diverting from the painful truth.
They got to the end of a small row of houses; Henry explained that the second one was his and told Doris how
much he had enjoyed her company
He told her that there was to be a concert in Gentry next week and asked her a little sheepishly if she would
be willing to go as his partner. Doris listened to him, it had obviously been very difficult for Henry to ask her
out and she felt a little nervous but flattered all the same.
"It's no fun going out to that sort of thing on ones own," he said and waited for Doris's answer.
Doris surprised herself by saying that she'd love to go with him; it had been too long since she'd enjoyed a
night out with a member of the opposite sex.
As she let herself in through the heavy old front door, Doris Penney could almost have been the Doris Penney
of years gone by...suppose Henry let her down...suppose...
No she would be positive and look forward to the first date in over forty years. Maybe, just maybe, Doris's life
was about to begin!
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