I’ve namechanged for this.
I arrived in the Middle East as the 18 year old bride of a gulf National many many moons ago and though my marriage ended after almost 40 years I’m still here. Not that we’re divorced but we are separated and I’m the one still living here in my husbands home country whilst he has gone on to pastures new.
It’s been so interesting and included stints living in the desert as well as on an island where I was the only European women for long periods of time.
My children also lived in out of the way places with us before we made their education a priority and settled down in the city.
I laugh when I see influencers on the likes of Instagram posting their pictures of places they think they’ve discovered and I can recall being there 40 odd years ago when it really was something to write about.
My youngest adult son is severely autistic and I live with him in a custom built house that caters for all of his needs as well as mine as a mum who is too old to look after him on her own nowadays and needs the help of a 2-1 round the clock team of carers. All of my children live very close by, minutes away, and we see a lot of each other. My husband almost killed us such was the pain of our family breakdown but we got back on our feet and we are doing absolutely grand.
I’ve recently been asked to write a book about my experiences but right now I can’t honestly be bothered. I’ve had a very serious health scare this year and I like getting up in the morning and pleasing myself apart from days I look after some of my grandchildren so their parents can work.
I also travel quite a bit and my next adventure is to inter rail through Europe alone as soon as it’s ok to do so. I didn’t have a gap year so I’m going to do at 64 what I could have done at 18 if circumstances had been different. Im not buying a back pack though, I’ll stick to a suitcase, but I will stay in hostels when available.
I’ve had the most interesting of lives and I’ve absolutely no regrets.