Today we said goodbye to one of the most precious little angels that heaven may ever be blessed with and while an unexpected farewell is never easy, when it comes to the life of this particular angel, there were always far more smiles than there were tears and I am pleased to say that today was no exception.

Ninety-four years in an ever changing world and still, she never once lost her magic. With a spirit that outshone that of most people half her age and a smile brighter than the brightest of stars, she had the ability to light up a room in an instant. She adored her vintage necklace collection almost as much as her rainbow coloured handbags and every single time without fail, she would somehow find a way to remind us all just how happy she was to have lived such a long and wonderful life.

She was our own beautiful little ray of sunshine for a great number of years and while very few people are blessed enough to ever have the pleasure of meeting their great relatives, I was lucky enough to create countless memories with not just one, but two of mine and for that, I will be forever thankful.

Ninety-four years worth of smiles, laughter and irreplaceable memories and although she may no longer be with us, it is days like today that remind us all she is never far from sight. Just like always, she is still sparkling and shining quite possibly more than ever before and while the location of the party itself may have moved for the time being, I can guarantee you that her and Grandma are still just as busy swapping stories and causing trouble, almost as though they never missed a beat.

For the longest time now, I have been somewhat subconsciously preventing myself from sharing the extent of my new found happiness with the world in fear of hurting someone who to be quite honest, was the biggest part of my life for five wonderful years and while it may have taken me a little longer than I would have liked, it seems I have finally realised that in doing so, the only person I had been hurting was myself.

The truth is, right now I am happier than I ever could have possibly imagined and while for the most part, I am generally the one to take hold of the pen and create my own little realm of magic, it seems that this time around life has decided to create the magic for me; beginning with a fairy-tale so surreal, that even the Princess herself still can’t quite believe that she has actually found her Prince.

A few months ago a boy walked into my life and instantly, he took my breath away. He was unbelievably handsome, incredibly charming and of course at the time, completely unexpected and in what seemed to be the blink of an eye, he had managed to change my entire world.

His smile spoke of a thousand stories without saying but a single word, his beautiful blue eyes whispered the only kind of secrets that I have ever found myself wanting to keep and hidden in behind his dimples were little pieces of magic that I could have sworn I had spent my entire life searching for. He was without a doubt the very piece of the puzzle that I had never even realised I was missing. The piece that instantly, allowed the rest of the puzzle pieces to fall perfectly into place and while our paths had indeed crossed countless times before, this time it was different. This time I was certain that the whole world stood still.

Four years on from that first moment we met and while life had of course happened to us both somewhere along the way, taking each of us in a direction that could not have possibly been any further apart; ironically enough, it seemed as though it had just brought us back together in a way that was so blatantly obvious, it was enough to make even the most cynical of realists believe in the magic of fate and from the very second that my panda eyes met his from across that crowded little room, I realised that I was no exception.

There, in that very moment, it seemed the girl who had always believed in romance and the happiest of ever afters, yet never quite believed in the ‘Serendipity’ of it all had somehow, just fallen head over heels into her very own fated little fairy-tale and while at first, it may not have been anything like she had been expecting, it didn’t take long for her to realise that it was in fact, everything she had been hoping for.

Suddenly, everything she had ever dreamed of was standing right there in front of her, looking at her with a light in his eyes that she had never before seen and instantly, she knew; she had finally found her ‘once in a blue moon’. 

It is no secret that life is in large part, a direct result of timing and for a girl who has struggled with the mere concept alone for as long as she can remember, I would say that I was quite possibly more surprised than anyone by the way that life has so beautifully and so effortlessly fallen perfectly into place, at the exact moment that I needed it to most. Leaving me with such an overwhelming sense of contentment that has me completely and utterly certain that now, more than ever, I am exactly where I am meant to be.

They say that it takes the fall of just one single pebble to cause a thousand tiny ripples in even the deepest of oceans and while I may have first dropped that precious little pebble of change some time ago now, I think it is fairly safe to say that I have never before seen ripples quite this beautiful.

Just one single spark of change followed by one thousand tiny ripples and almost like clockwork, the girl who was always a little lost out there in the big, wide world had never before felt more found; found in a way that she had never quite felt before, in the arms of a boy who constantly leaves her speechless, floating in amongst the wonder of a world that has only just recently been filled with a kind of ‘ever after’ happiness that to be quite honest, she never even knew existed.