Cheated

I’ve never had one, but if ever I was going to have one it would be for the wedding of my daughter. I’ve always loved the idea of having a made-to-measure suit. And a few years ago a friend offered me a very generous gift: to go and choose a casual jacket of my choice from the place of my choice. And in the Lanes in Brighton I knew just the place. Or so I thought. When I got to the place of my choice there wasn’t a jacket for me. In my disappointment and wandering through the Lanes like a lost child, I chanced upon the answer. A bespoke tailor’s with a couple of jackets from their summer range. But that’s another story. What emerged was the place I would go if ever I needed a made-to-measure suit for my daughter’s wedding. And then it happened. So I returned earlier this year to start the process of having my suit for the wedding made. Actually I’d been back a year earlier but that is apparently too early for the suit making process. “Perhaps sir,” said the kind tailor after he found out when the wedding was, “you should come back in a year’s time!” The first appointment, I discovered was simply to choose the material! And my goodness what a choice! When it did come time to be measured on the next visit, I was told I had what’s known as an athletic figure! Enquiring as to what that meant I was told: “it means your chest is bigger than your stomach!” I’ll settle for that! So, with the material and the lining chosen and the measurements taken, it was wait for six weeks before a first fitting! Now it was getting real. Until COVID-19. No suit, fitting, no wedding. Cheated! I got a call in April to give a progress report: “Your waistcoat is made and ready for a fitting, but obviously we can’t do that!” Cheated! Impatient, and wondering if, in fact, the wedding might be able to go ahead, I emailed the tailor to discover the rest of the suit was nearly ready. This week a I received the email I had been waiting for: your suit is ready, it’s in Brighton, it will be pressed over the weekend and I can go for a fitting next week! On my own, or course. So, I get the suit of a lifetime fitted, with no one there to share the joy! Cheated! And, once any alterations are done, I’ll have a beautiful suit, and no wedding! Cheated! Life’s like that. It sometimes cheats us. It cheats us of our loved ones, our dreams, our hopes and jobs, our homes, our health, our strength. COVID-19 has cheated many people. And it still is. I’m left wondering about life and how it works, or doesn’t. And I find myself, slightly annoyingly reflecting on one ting that doesn’t leave me cheated. Yes, you know the answer and I almost don’t want to say it for fear for trotting out the “spiritual” response to all this. But, and here’s the rub, it’s true. Wonderfully true. That nothing, absolutely noting, can separate me from the love of God. Noting can cheat me out of that.