I met May in June 1958 on completion of my first year at Glasgow University when I started a summer job with the Scottish Legal Life Assurance Society in Bothwell Street, Glasgow, where she worked. She had started working there as a clerk in January of that year, having just left high school at age 15 (the Scottish norm). We started dating in the fall of that year after I had returned to university. The bottom picture was taken I believe in December 1958 when she was 16 and I was 18. In those days when on a date we either went to a movie or a dance hall ( a very popular Glasgow recreation). I had taken ballroom dancing lessons and May learned quickly and we were quite competent and both enjoyed it a lot. On nice days we did a lot of walking in the many beautiful parks in Glasgow.
In about 1960 May decided to enter the nursing profession at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow. She very much enjoyed looking after people and enjoyed the nursing aspects of the job. However she found the conditions for nursing students very Draconian. For example she got one week-end off a month but had to work the midnight shift on the Sunday immediately afterwards, so after just over a year she quit and took a job as a clerk in Glasgow University.
The middle picture was taken in December 1961 at a Xmas party at my parents' home in Balornock , Glasgow (where I lived). May and I became engaged the following month and were married in Balshagray Parish Church in Glasgow on September 4th, 1962. By this time I had finished my undergraduate studies and had received an industrial grant to continue graduate studies at Glasgow University. We purchased a flat in Govan, Glasgow, handy for both of us to get to the University where May continued to work. About this time May became very fond of figure skating and joined a club not far from where we lived. She was quite a good skater and I accompanied her on several occasions but I did not do as well as she did. We often watched ice skating together on TV and were lucky enough on one occasion to actually see world champion Alain Calmat live at an ice show in Ayr.
The top photo shows May and I at a wedding in Prestwick in April 1965. Shortly after this time we started talking about the possibility of emigrating to Canada, a prospect which excited us both. I managed to obtain a one-two year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary, Alberta and on August 11, 1967 we set sail for Canada. May managed to get a job at the University of Calgary so we could travel together by car. We both took to Canadian life instantly and within a short time had decided to stay permanently in that country. Early in 1968 I started looking for a permanent job and secured a well paying position with Esso in Sarnia, Ontario to start in September 1967.
Just when things seemed to be going so well for us the wheels fell off, as they say. Granny Hodge, (referred to as Aunt Margaret in some of May's mum Jean's letters) passed away suddenly. I wanted May to go back to Scotland for the funeral but she declined. She seemed unsettled and unbelievably she wanted her freedom and we divorced a few months later. Although I was saddened by this turn of events and had no choice in the matter we parted amicably and kept in touch until I met Julie and re-married a year later. I was saddened to hear of May's passing but was pleased to know that she had raised three fine children.
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