Patsy and I married in 1959 and planned a quiet life, me as a boatbuilder, her as an actress. Within eighteen months life had been turned upside down and we found ourselves living in Cologne in Northern Germany ,in an area where nobody spoke English. Pat had the art of communication and didn't need language; she loved everyone, and they worshiped her (I was deeply me). Each day we caught a tram from outside Cologne Cathedral (Koln Dom). The first time she saw it she is inappropriately said 'Hell's Bells'.... well it was the 5th highest building in the world at that time.
However, I didn't draw the cathedral until twenty-years later. Those twenty-years were spent flying long-range jets, which meant 14 days away and home for five.
In 1979, we were posted back to Germany onto the F4 Phantom jet fighter. This meant I was home most nights and could start teaching myself Pen & Ink drawing as a hobby. It seemed to come naturally: Cologne Cathedral was about my 10th drawing. The original was bought by a dancer in Connecticut US, and most of the copies sold/sell in the US, albeit I have now finished marketing.
In her last years I drove her across Europe via the Mosel and Rhine valleys, and into Cologne, where once more she said 'Hells Bells'
We were married for 63 years.
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