**Diary Entry 12th May**
Walking to the village shop, Emily suddenly recognised the mother of her first love in the elderly woman coming toward her. To her surprise, the woman knew her too and couldnt hold back her tears.
For the first time in ten years, Emily drove down the lane where shed grown up, in a quiet Cotswolds village. Though she now sat in a luxury car, she felt anything but secure returninga flood of painful childhood memories rushed over her. Long ago, shed sworn never to set foot here again, yet something pulled her back to the place where shed been born and raised.
Emily had been raised by her mother, Margaret, after her father passed before she turned three. She only knew him from photographs. Life had been modest: Margaret worked as a local vet but barely had time for a garden and earned little.
“Dont fret, love,” Margaret often said. “So long as youre happy and healthy, the rest will sort itself out.”
Emily grew into a lovely young woman, much sought afterbut with no dowry to speak of. At a village fair, she met Thomas, a boy from a nearby market town. For Emily, it was her first true love, which worried Margaret. Thomas came from wealth, and she feared hed cast Emily aside once the honeymoon phase faded. Emily insisted he was genuine, that money meant nothing to him. After six months of walks and stolen moments, he brought his parents to ask for her hand. But the moment his mother saw their simple cottage, she went pale. She stayed silent, yet unease settled in Emilys heart.
The wedding was set for the first Saturday in October. That morning, Emily felt oddly restless. Her friends helped pin up her hair and adjust her dressbut Thomas never arrived. Her godfather (a close family friend) went to check on him, but deep down, Emily already knew thered be no wedding.
“Say what you like, I wont let my son throw his life away,” Thomass mother told the godfather.
Emily wept till dawn. And Thomas, under his parents pressure, left her without a word. Her great love snuffed out like a candle.
The next day, Emily packed her old satchel and caught the first bus to London. She found work first as a waitress, then as a kitchen hand. When a chance came to go abroad and earn better wages, she took it without hesitation. While overseas, word reached her from relativesMargaret had passed. But there was no turning back; Emily was already on the plane.
Years slipped by. She worked hard, first for meagre pay, then for something better, saving what she could. But the wound of that first love never fully healed: shed never married, still carrying bitterness toward Thomas and his parents.
When Emily returned all these years later, the villagers barely recognised her. The shy, sweet girl had become an elegant woman, stylishly dressed but with the same warm smile. Only her eyes held sadnesseven when she laughed.
Then, on her way to the shop, she froze. The woman approaching was none other than Thomass mother. The old lady looked up, recognised her, and burst into tears.
“Emily is it really you? Please forgive me, child. I ruined your lifeand my sons. I only wanted the better match for him and broke him instead. After losing you, he never loved again. He drowned his sorrows in drink. Thats my doing, and now I must live with it.”
Emily pitied her. The woman was gaunt, worn thin by regret. In that moment, the bitterness Emily had carried for years melted away. She saw that those whod shattered her heart had paid dearlywith their own happiness.
**Lesson learned:** Some wounds only heal when we see the pain of those who caused them. Resentment is a heavy burdenlighter to let go.
