The day I’ll never forget.

It was going to be a fun night, our sixth wedding anniversary and we were so happy together. A far cry from our previous marriages, we were so glad that we both decided to move on and at the same time too! It was like fate had pulled us together, taking a walk in the same park on the same day at the same time. Buster liked him too because that is how we met.

We had just passed the fountain in the centre of the park when a boy on one of those silly bicycles that are too small for him rode directly at us, we both moved sideways to avoid him and we bumped into each other. Buster thought he was attacking me and bit his leg.

Of course, I went with him to the hospital, what else could I do. I dropped Buster off at home and took Ludo that was his name to hospital in my car. Three stitches, four hours later and a lot of chatting revealed that we were both divorced and lived in the same area.

Suffice to say, we ended up back at my apartment where I cooked him lunch and we shared a bottle of wine after walking Buster.

It was a whirlwind romance from there on in and within a month we were living together and one year later were married, we were so happy together.

We decided from the outset that we both did not want children yet and so would wait as both our careers were developing. So it was just the two of us and Buster who having decided he liked the taste of Ludo became his dog!

The years passed and no matter what happened we remained as close as that very first day. We had a close knit set of friends, some from my side pre Ludo and some Ludo’s, pre me. Again even our friends became friends, we all just gelled!

We’d had five years of marriage together doing all the romantic things that lovers do, meals together holidays together all just the two of us.

For the sixth anniversary we had decided to throw a party and invite all our friends, the invitations went out and the follow up texts for those of them that lead busy lives. We hired our favourite French restaurant L’escargo Ecrase so that we could eat and dance until we dropped or dropped off as some of the hardest workers inevitably would, but we would all be together celebrating our anniversary.

The night could not have been better, the food was brilliant as it always was, everyone had turned up and the music was to everyone’s taste, it was perfect! The restaurant staff worked so hard to clear the tables to enable us all to dance the night away.

I couldn’t get near Chrissie at all during the evening because as always there was a crowd around her as she was a popular girl so I sent her a text from across the room saying how great it was to see you. She never looked up from her audience, so I put my phone away and left her to her fans.

Ludo was his usual funny self keeping everyone laughing. He’d had the snails in garlic butter, the speciality of the house and was teasing all the ladies with the snails.

Later in the evening, when the tables were being removed he had complained of heart burn, so popped the usual “over the counter” medication and it subsided.

The dancing started and the wine continued to flow, someone suggested a dancing competition for the men and the theme for the dancing was to be Gangnam Style! The ladies were to vote for each dancer.

Ludo surprisingly took to the floor first and was performing as well as the original artist which surprised me as I’d never seen him do that before! He was about half way through the record when his rhythm changed and his moves were nothing like what we’d seen in the original internet performance. Ludo fell to his knees; he looked directly into my eyes and put out his arms as if beckoning me to join him on the floor. I started to walk towards him just as his body toppled forward. He was face down onto the floor. Ludo did not move.

Roger, a doctor and our mutual friend ran over to him and turned him over. Ludo’s eyes were wide open. Roger felt for a pulse, there was no pulse. He tried to shock Ludo’s heart and performed CPR, but Ludo remained there, unmoving, dead.

My life was torn apart; it ended that night on the dance floor at the restaurant on our sixth wedding anniversary!

The funeral arrangements were a blur, I don’t know how I did it, but it was done, arranged, I’d even texted everyone who was attending, probably out of habit than necessity. It was just something we all did on the day of whatever was happening just to remind people. Thinking about it now, it seemed a silly thing to do as who could forget it was Ludo’s funeral.

The funeral itself was well attended with eulogies from his two best friends. I found it strange that Chrissie had not turned up to support me, but guessed she had maybe another last minute assignment from work as she was in and out of the country quite a lot with her job. It is still too painful to even think of the details of the day as I just find myself crying at the thought as it is still too raw!

The strangest thing about the whole day was when everyone had gone home and I was sat on my own trying to imagine my future without Ludo. Buster was also whimpering on the settee, he missed Ludo too!

I took out my phone and looked at the screen, “1 message” was illuminated on the screen. I automatically opened the text, it was from Chrissie, it read “Sorry I couldn’t get there; I hope you had fun without me.” I texted back saying “It was a day I’ll never forget!”