On August 24th 1979 Lee and I got married and spent two weeks on honeymoon in the Benalmadena area on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain. It was a place we both loved and remembered, maybe it was because it was our first holiday abroad and over the forthcoming years we often said how much we would love to go and live there. Why there we don’t know, as we had had other holidays in nice places but for some reason we were attracted to the place.

In the July of 2000 we decided to take the plunge and fulfil our dream and move to Spain. The decision didn’t go down well with a lot of our family and friends, especially our two sons Ricky and Gary. We had made our minds up and booked the tickets. At the time, Ricky was aged 17 and Gary was aged 15. Ricky was living and working as a junior chef in a 5-star hotel, The Mount Murray Golf and Country Hotel in Douglas on the Isle of Man. He was very happy there and made many friends as he pursued his Chefing career.

Gary had just left school, still playing football and helping out in the kitchen at The Knotty Ash Bistro but he was madly in love with his girlfriend Ashley Buchanan. Gary and Ashley were childhood sweethearts and had been together for two years, this all made the prospect of moving to spain all the more difficult.

After many heart searching discussions and promises, Gary decided to move Spain with me and his mum. We all quickly struck up friendships with many ex- pats over there; in fact we were amazed at how many British people where living there! We had a birthday party for Gary with our new friends but he was missing home and Ashley so much that he returned to the U.K in the November 2000 to live with his grandmother.

We kept in constant touch with all the family and in the following summer Gary came out to see us with two of his best friends Tony and Ronnie Singleton. They all stayed with us, it was the first time Tony and Ronnie had been on holiday and they had a great time going to different places meeting the friends that Gary had made. It was awful for his mum and me to say goodbye when they left to go home. Gary came to visit us again a couple of times that year and Ricky came over at the same time it was great to be all together again, but once again they returned to the U.K.

In 2002 Gary came to see us again, this time he brought his grandmother over with him. He only stayed for a couple of weeks whereas my mother stayed for three months and she loved it. After my mother went home Gary brought Ashley out for a holiday. It was great to see her as we had not seen her since we left the U.K. We all had a great time, Ashley loved the place, got to know a few people and we knew it wouldn’t be long before Gary and Ashley would be back. Late in the summer of 2002 during one of many telephone conversations with Gary, he asked me if he and Ashley could come out to live with us. Lee and I were delighted and of course said yes, and then Ricky moved out to live with us! This was going to be fantastic, we had to move to a three bedroom apartment but it was worth it to have both the boys out together. Wherever Lee and I went our friends made comments on how cheerful and pleasant the lads and Ashley were. We were just so proud and happy to show off the happiness of our kids.

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