When your paradise turns into hell, will your friends help you or leave you to drown?
I live in a Spanish seaside town, and walk my dog by the sea every morning.
On one of those walks I noticed a lady sitting upright on a wooden bench on the promenade, she looked about 50 and seemed to be wearing a wrap.
As I got closer, something about her seemed, well, not odd exactly, just out of place.
At first I guessed she was waiting for a taxi. She was gazing at the sea, hair neatly tied back, legs crossed. The little sack truck next to her with a couple of bags neatly tied with bungee cords suggested she was going somewhere. It all seemed to fit my first impression.
What didn't fit was the large blue bucket on top of the bags, and as I drew near enough to see that the wrap was a blanket, and her face was too wrinkly and weather beaten to have spend much time indoors recently, I noticed that the blue bucket contained towels and a soap dispenser.
Now this WAS interesting.
I wished her good morning, stopped and introduced myself.
She responded automatically, telling me her name was Valerie, and when she spoke, it was with a gentle and educated voice with a southern accent.
My innocuous open ended questions teased out her story, I’m a good listener, and slowly at first, she started talking as if telling a story.
Valerie and John, met and fell in love in England; John was unhappily married with two grown up children, Rodney, an accountant, and Vanessa, a lawyer.
The children wouldn’t accept he’d found someone else, even though they knew the marriage wasn’t a happy one, and always tried to pressure John into returning to their mother, Helen.
After moving in with Valerie, John had a meeting with his wife and children and made an agreement.
In return for everything he owned (except his clothes and personal jewelry) and 75% of the proceeds of the sale of his business, they all agreed that everything he bought from that day would be Valerie’s property if he died.
Although there was nothing in writing, he trusted Helen and his children and sold his business, giving everything they owned together (cars and houses) and half the money to his wife, split a quarter of the money between his children, and kept a quarter for himself.
Valerie sold her house and they decided to move to the Costa Blanca.
The move to Spain was like starting life afresh - joy spread over Valerie’s face as she relived it in her memory - she said they were in love like teenagers. They joined the Golf Club, bought a boat and a mooring in the Marina, a Villa overlooking the sea, and a pair of exotic his and hers sports cars.
It was all in Johns name, neither of them thought that wrong, it’s just that he dealt with everything to do with money.
Life was perfect for 9 happy years; they seemed to have many wonderful friends who were fun to be with, who were involved with all the local charities, and who they entertained frequently at their house or on their boat.
>>>> Costa Blanca Tales >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Next Page >>
People searching for this page used the following search terms:
Costa Blanca Stories, Stories of the Costa Blanca, news and information about the Costa Blanca.
They also searched for less obvious terms, like: Moraira information, Moraira News, Calpe information and Calpe News. That may have included Javea, Javea information and Javea News.
Stories about Moraira, Javea and Calpe, Denia, Altea, Benidorm may also have proved relevant.