In 2009 I was in a very bad place. In the spring of 2010, my now husband took me on our first holiday together, to the Isle of Skye.
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In 2009 I was in a very bad place. In the spring of 2010, my now husband took me on our first holiday together, to the Isle of Skye.
When he came back into my life in late 2009 I was not living well, I was exhausted from being bullied out of my career.
I was so depressed that instead of laughing, I would say, "That's hilarious," with completely flat affect.
I had a broken heart from repeated bereavements nobody let me grieve.
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Husband came back into my life, saw me as a whole person, and began to help me along the road to recovery.
He was the only person in my life who didn't say words to the effect of, "Why don't you just..." and unload a barrel of unhelpful, unsolicited, blindingly obvious advice I was in no fit state to put into practice because I'd have already done it if I was capable.
I helped him settle in Edinburgh and he helped me get my body, mind and flat together.
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We took months off from work to spend time together, making up for lost years apart, rebuilding me as a person and us as a couple.
In 2010 we moved in together, both got jobs, I began applying for a Masters' degree and we took our first holiday together, to Skye.
Each day we'd drive around a different peninsula in his old MX-5, as often as possible with the roof down.
On one of those days, he proposed, on a headland overlooking the sea.
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Whilst pottering around Portree near the end of the trip, we came on a shop selling all kinds of local products, souvenirs, and yes, a live laugh love sign was in the back.
We looked at each other and discussed it.
This was 14 years ago, LLL merch hadn't yet taken over every house in the Western Hemisphere. It might be a little twee, but we'd been through a lot, together, and it would be a great momento of getting engaged on Skye. So we bought it.
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This sign has hung in our house for over 14 years. The only time it wasn't hanging was during our major refurb earlier this year, and it was one of the first things to get propped back up.
So here's the ask.
Stop with the hatred of people having live laugh love and similar in their homes.
You don't know what they've been through.
You don't know what it might mean to them.
There is enough genuinely wrong in this world to comment on, do that instead.