Emily Taylor

Everything Happens for the Best: The Story of Victoria and Her Daughter Lila—A Perfectionist Mother, a Rebel Daughter, Love, Heartbreak, and a New Beginning with a Chance Encounter on an English Street

Everything Happens for the Best Margaret Wallacemother to Evelynmoulded her daughter in her own image

La vida

We Meet the Wrong People, Marry the Wrong Ones The Journey of Life Isn’t Easy and You Can’t Escape Fate: Each of Us Has Our Own Path and Our Own Truth. Vera Was Raised in a Household Ruled by Women—Her Grandmother Faye and Mother Mary—Each Carrying Their Burdens Alone in a Small Countryside Home with Endless Chores. When Life in the Village Became Too Much, They Moved to the City, Chasing New Beginnings. Vera Grows Up Learning to Work Hard, Faces Heartbreaks, and Learns Hard Lessons About Men and Love, But Ultimately Finds the Right Partner, Only to Have Fate Intervene Again, Leaving Her Alone Like the Generations Before—A Story of Resilience, Family, and the Unpredictability of Life.

We Meet the Wrong Ones, We Marry the Wrong Ones The journey of life is no easy feat, and you cant escape

La vida

0141

My wife suggested we give up our bedroom to her parents for the entire Christmas holiday, and that we

La vida

016

She Stopped Speaking to Her Husband After His Birthday Outburst—and For the First Time, He Got Scared

I stopped speaking to my husband after what he did at my birthday party, and for the first time, he was

La vida

The Mystery of the Old Postcard Three days before the arrival of a faded envelope that would change her life, Natasha Collins was standing on the balcony of her London flat. The night was thick and starless, the city lights of the Strand shimmering below. Inside, beyond the glass doors, Mark was on speakerphone, hashing out the final details of a deal. Natasha pressed her palm to the cold balcony window. She was tired—not from work, which she handled brilliantly, but from the air she’d been breathing for years. From the predictable rhythm of a life mapped out in five-year plans, where even a marriage proposal was a milestone to be ticked off. A lump of longing—or was it silent anger?—caught in her throat. She picked up her phone, opened WhatsApp, and began a message to an old friend she hadn’t seen in ages. Her friend, now mother of two, lived in a whirl of screaming children and perpetual chaos. The message was brief and breathless, nonsensical to anyone else: “You know, sometimes I feel like I’ve forgotten what real rain smells like—not this city fog, but the kind that hits the earth and smells of dust and hope. I just want a miracle. Something simple. Something made of paper that I can hold in my hands.” She didn’t expect an answer. It was a cry into the digital void, a ritual for peace of mind. After writing it, she deleted the message without sending. Her friend wouldn’t have understood, might have called it a crisis, or put it down to too much wine. A minute later, Natasha returned to the lounge, where Mark was ending his call. “All right?” he asked, glancing over. “You look tired.” “Yeah, I’m fine,” she lied. “Just needed some air. Craving something… I don’t know, fresh.” “In December?” Mark chuckled. “How about some sea air in Brighton? We’ll go in May—if the quarter closes well.” He turned back to his screen. Natasha’s phone buzzed with a client’s confirmation—just another to-do for tomorrow. No miracles. *** Three days later, while sorting through the post, she caught her finger on an unfamiliar envelope. It slipped to the wooden floor—sturdy, rough, the colour of old parchment, with no stamps, only a pine branch and her address inked in a neat hand. Inside was a Christmas card—thick, embossed, gold glitter flaking onto her fingertips. “May your boldest dreams come true this year…” read the handwritten message that made her heart skip. The handwriting was familiar. It was Alex’s, the boy from her grandmother’s village on the coast, to whom she’d once promised everlasting love as a teenager. Every summer she’d spent there, building dens by the river and lighting August fireworks, exchanging letters during the school year. Then, the house had been sold, life had pulled them in different directions, and they lost touch. The address was her current London flat. But the card was dated 1999. How was that possible? A delayed delivery? Or was the universe answering her childlike cry for a simple, paper miracle? She cancelled calls and meetings, told Mark she needed to check a venue (he hardly looked up), and drove out of the city. To reach the little town by the sea would take three hours. She had to find the sender. Google told her there was just one little print shop—a place called Winter’s Charm. *** Winter’s Charm was not what she’d pictured. Not a bright little gift shop, but a sanctuary of silence. The door creaked, letting her into a large, fragrant space—cedarwood, metal, and a hint of old varnish. The heat of the woodstove drifted in waves, brushing her cold cheeks. The owner worked at his bench, bent over what looked like a prehistoric press. He didn’t look up at the tinkling bell; only when she coughed did he straighten, joints clicking, and turn to face her. Not tall, broad-shouldered, in shirt sleeves, with peaceful eyes that offered neither curiosity nor politeness—just calm attention. “Is this your card?” Natasha set it on the counter. He approached, wiped his hands on his jeans, then held the postcard up to the light, as if it were a rare coin. “Ours,” he confirmed at last. “With the pine stamp—yes, 1999. How did it reach you?” “It arrived in London—must be a postal error,” Natasha said briskly, hiding how tightly everything inside her was wound. “I need to find the sender. I know the handwriting.” He looked her up and down: the sleek hair, expensive taupe coat that belonged to another world, the face that wasn’t hiding exhaustion behind perfect makeup anymore. “Why do you want the sender?” he asked quietly. “A quarter of a century’s passed. People are born and die in that time. They forget.” “I haven’t died,” she said, more fiercely than she meant. “And I haven’t forgotten.” He studied her for a long, searching moment. Then he gestured to the corner—tea, he said, would warm her up, “even the London variety.” No need for answers—he made strong tea in battered mugs. So it began. *** Three days in that coastal town gave Natasha back parts of herself she’d lost—the peace of snow sliding off a roof, the warmth of fire that glowed rather than flashed, the quiet presence of someone who lived by the honest work of his hands. The printer, Alex, still lived in his parents’ old house, where the floorboards creaked with memory and the scent of jam and woodsmoke hung in the air. He showed her his father’s old engravings—deer, snowflakes—and explained how the shimmering ink was mixed so it wouldn’t flake. He was like his house: sturdy, a little weathered, brimming with humble treasures. He told her how his own father, after falling in love with his mother, sent her a postcard that was lost in the post—love to the void, as he called it, hopeless but beautiful. She asked, “Do you believe in that? The hopeless sort?” He shrugged. “He did find her in the end, and they were together for years. If there’s love, anything’s possible. Otherwise—I believe in what you can hold in your hands. This press. This work. The rest is smoke.” There was no bitterness in his tone; only the acceptance of a craftsperson who knew material’s limits. Natasha had always fought and bent the world to her will. Here, her battles seemed pointless—snow fell when it wished, and Alex’s dog slept where he pleased. Some quiet connection grew between them—hers was the restless energy and daring he missed, she found in him tranquillity and authenticity. He saw the child in her, longing for magic; she saw in him a guardian of craft, time, and silence. With him, her constant background anxiety faded, like the sea after a storm. When Mark called on the third day, Natasha was watching Alex from the window as he split logs with calm, practiced strength. “Where are you?” Mark’s voice, cold and controlled, came down the line. “Pick up a tree on your way home—the artificial one’s broken. Fitting, isn’t it?” Natasha looked at the real fir, strung with old-fashioned glass baubles. “Yeah,” she murmured, “very fitting.” She hung up. *** The truth emerged on New Year’s Eve. Alex handed her a brittle sketch from his dad’s old notebook—the text from that very postcard. “It wasn’t your Alex who wrote it,” he said quietly. “It was my dad. To my mum. It never got delivered. History, as they say, goes round in circles.” The magic shattered like glitter. No mystical message from the past—just fate’s cruel irony. Her chase after yesterday was a beautiful delusion. “I should go,” Natasha whispered, not meeting his eyes. “Everything’s there—wedding, contracts.” Alex nodded. He made no move to stop her. He stood in his domain of paper and memory—a man who could send warmth in envelopes but was powerless against the cold from another world. “I understand,” he said gently. “I’m no magician, just a printer. I make things you can hold, not castles in the air. But sometimes… sometimes the past sends us not a ghost, but a mirror—to show who we could become.” He turned back to his press, letting her leave. Natasha picked up her bag and keys, thumbed her phone—a slender link to the reality of calls, KPIs, a convenient, silent marriage to a man who measured life in money. At the door, her eyes fell on the cards on the counter—the old one, and a fresh-printed one Alex must have meant to give her, bearing the pine stamp and a new message: “To have courage.” Natasha understood. The true miracle wasn’t the antique card, but this instant—the choice before her, sharp as winter air. She couldn’t step into his world, nor drag him into hers. But she’d never return to Mark. She walked out into the crisp, star-spangled night. And didn’t look back. *** A year passed. December returned. Natasha never went back to the London event circuit. She broke up with Mark, and opened her own boutique agency, specialising in thoughtful, intimate events—ones with soul, with real paper invitations printed by a certain man by the coast. Her life wasn’t slower, but it was purposeful. She learned the value of silence. Winter’s Charm now offered creative retreats. Alex, coached by Natasha, handles the odd online order—but he’s selective. His cards are becoming known, business ticking over, but the process stays the same. They don’t chat every day, just for work. But recently, Natasha received a card in the post. The stamp was a soaring bird. The message was just two words: “Thank you—for courage.” The Mystery of the Old Postcard

The Mystery of the Old Postcard Three days before the yellowed envelope entered her life, Alice Turner

La vida

No Magic Here New Year Was Racing In Like a Runaway Train, and Lena Felt Like She Was Standing on the Platform Without a Ticket The festive spirit was nowhere to be found as disaster after disaster struck: her trusty ten-year-old washing machine flooded the flat, her gourmet ginger cat Basil devoured the Olivier salad sausage, and a failed hunting attempt left Christmas baubles smashed among spilled soil. As Lena despaired, her eccentric relatives fell through the door—Auntie with a cauldron of jelly, her sister with backup cake plans, and her best friend tangled in tinsel with Basil. Amid the chaos, a mysterious box left by Granny Val promised to be opened at midnight, revealing a heartfelt recipe for happiness: laughter, resilience, togetherness, and love—no magic required, just knowing you’re understood.

No magic at all New Years Eve was hurtling towards me like an express train roaring through the English

La vida

Echoes in the Night: Alexandra Finds Connection and Hope on New Year’s Eve in an English Rehabilitation Centre

Echo in the Night Margaret Collins found herself admitted to the rehabilitation ward precisely two weeks

La vida

If Only Everyone Got “Help” Like This: How Polina’s Mother-in-Law Came to the Rescue and Nearly Broke Her Family

If only everyone had such help Polly, love, Ill come by today and help out with the little ones.

La vida

020

You’re Just Jealous! – When Mum Gave Away Her Flat for Love: A London Son’s Heartbreak, Family Drama, and the Price of Trust

Youre just jealous Mum, are you serious? The Ivy? Thats at least two hundred quid a head for dinner.

La vida

Just the Girl Next Door: When Lifelong Friendship, Family Ties, and Jealousy Collide Over Saturday Cappuccinos and Cheesecake in a Cosy English Café

Are you honestly going to spend your whole Saturday sorting out rubbish in the garage? The entire Saturday?