Happy Anniversary . . .

. . . time of the year and congratulations go out to one of life’s happiest couples, Roger and Roy. Enjoying the sunshine and solitude of a Friday afternoon at Twin Peaks, in the Castro, I had the absolute pleasure of being joined by them if only because I was at a table with the only two available seats left.

Roger and Roy politely asked me if I would take a photograph of them together. Not at all, of course, I replied. From that moment on I was enjoying the company of two men from Nottingham who travel each year to the US – San Francisco, Key Largo and the take their breath away city of New York – and have ever such a good time every step of the way.

We talked of travels across the US and of life back home in the UK, all of us happy to have distance between us and Cheryl Cole, each of us bemused and confused about why she should take up so much public space. But why spoil a pleasant afternoon in the sunshine of the Castro with grotty Daily Mail talk.

Roger and Roy have been together for 36 years, love at first sight said Roy, and on Christmas Eve they will be celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary.  They married at home in Nottingham where they live with Roger’s father who has Alzheimer’s, but not the bad one.  He is enjoying the more benign form of simple, foggy forgetfulness. Roger, an only child, and anxious to spare his father the indignity of the nursing home was so relieved at Roy’s insistence on their taking his father into their home where they could look after him together.  That was ten years ago.

While away on their travels a gang of good friends look after dear Dad. Once home, Roger and Roy entertain with photos and stories.  They have ever such good fun but nothing was more fun than the wedding on Christmas Eve with fifty family and friends. The highlight was the wedding cake Roger baked – Delia’s Creole Christmas Cake. It was ever so good, said Roger, and, of course Roy had to agree.

Good friends, as indeed I had begun to think of them, say goodbye and Roger and Roy were due back at their guesthouse for a cocktail party meet and greet of the fellow guests, after which they had tickets for The Godfather at the historic Castro Theatre.

Meanwhile, this week-end in Washington, Congress repealed the ban on gay men and women serving in the military, the policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Gay men and women are now at liberty to die for their country. We do not see or hear much of Obama these days.  The soaring rhetoric of the election campaign is already of another era.  I like to think that with the healthcare bill, the financial crisis, the tax-cuts, unemployment, not to mention the war in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama has been too busy to talk and talk has become action.

Roger and Roy have each other. That others of us should be so lucky.

Merry Christmas, Happy Anniversary, comfort and joy to all.