November 2020

Today we unite across faiths, cultures and backgrounds to remember the service and sacrifice of the Armed Forces community from Britain and the Commonwealth. We honour those who serve to defend our democratic freedoms and way of life, and share this short extract from Alexander McCall Smith’s wartime romance, The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse.

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“Do you think it’s possible to love somebody who isn’t there any longer? To carry on loving him?”

Val looked up at the sky. A hint of a cooling breeze had sprung up and it touched her now. Swallows dipped and swooped in pursuit of prey in the higher layers of air; tiny dots of pirouetting black. The question was not a casual one, she thought; this was as important as anything they had said to one another. “Of course it is,” she said. “Of course.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m quite sure.” And then she added, “Look up there; look at the birds.”

“What about them?”

“Nothing.”

She thought: You can go on loving people a long time after they have left you; you can love them every bit as much as you loved them when they were still here. Love lasts. Love grows stronger. Love lasts a lifetime, and beyond.