Goodbye (2023)

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My beautiful wife. 

We first met in Durham as student teachers in September 2000. 

You saw an art print in a shop window near the Cathedral and immediately fell in love with it - 'Dance Me To The End of Love' by Jack Vettriano. 

I didn't have the heart to tell you it was named after a Leonard Cohen song - you were very much a Cliff Richard and show tunes kind of girl and I thought the connection to a famous misery guts might put you off. 

In 2003 we chose to have the picture on our wedding invitations, as a nice link back to how we first met. A relative bought us a framed print as a wedding present and it still hangs in our home.

Eventually, you did get to hear the Leonard Cohen song and to my surprise you absolutely loved it. You said you wished you'd known how beautiful the lyrics were, and you'd like to have danced to it at our wedding.

It was our 20th Wedding Anniversary in April this year and we'd often talked about renewing our vows as an excuse for another party. But we never did get to dance to Leonard Cohen.

Goodbye Babes.  
 

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Oh, let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love



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