Not What I Signed Up For

This is an autobiographical account of an elderly twice-married widow who has always wanted to write as well as to travel. She describes her teenage relationships, which didn't last, her time at a Church of England teacher training college in the early 1960s, and her first marriage to a man who considered it 'clever' not to earn sufficient money. She details how, together, they established and ran an art gallery in the Norfolk countryside, and began a manufacturing jewellery business. Her first husband abandons her and their three children, for another woman, leaving her needing to sell their homes after various disasters in order to pay off several bank loans. She teaches the three children at home before being able to admit them into local schools. She and the children move into a workshop before being able to buy their own home. Through her role as a teacher of Traveller children, she meets a man who becomes her second husband. They are very happy and often travel abroad together, until he has an affair and develops cancer. Following his death and seeking a soul-mate, she joins an internet dating site which helps her to determine her identity, only to discover that what her dates want is quite different from what she is seeking. She continues to travel, finds her own home and develops friendships with long-forgotten college colleagues. The Covid pandemic curtails her travels but offers her uninterrupted time for creative writing, with encouragement from friends and her younger daughter.