To My Daughter, How I Met Your Mother

It all started about 14 years before i met your mother 30 years ago. i was about 20 years had just fallen truly madly deeply in love with the wonderful Jacqui in Teignmouth, Devon. I was young,and still ferrel! i think we lasted about a year, within a few months, i'd been in an 70mph car accident, the driver hadn't mentioned it wasn't his car, and i ended up with 200 hours of community service, the probation service gave me 2 options, one was laying railway sleepers down on a cliff footpath in Dawlish, the other was to work in a childrens home, which i did, i ended up staying on as a volunteer, and was probably the best job i ever had. as i said, i was young and ferrel, and had itchy feet. woke up one morning, packed up my rucksack, and off i went, ending up this time (after various stop offs around the uk) in Pontins Camber Sands on the bars, and cellars, and told to get my hair 'sorted out' me and the hairdresser Janette, got married 8 months later (1984 ish) in Hastings, soon after moved to her home town of Southport. things didn't work out, eventually i hitched back down South, but soon got fed up with Hastings, and left a few days after i'd snorted heroin, everyone i knew was on it, so i got the hell out, hitched to Aberystwyth mid-Wales, think it was about 1985-6ish, by sept '87' had moved down to Watford and was making telephone headsets for the army. we used to get quite a few temps in, and one tea break, this young hairy bloke introduced himself as Buzz, and said he knew me? he then said did i remember a girl called Jacqui from Teignmouth Devon, i said yes, he said did i remember her younger brother, then it clicked, it was Mark! my father had written a book about coincidences, and encounters, and i was experiencing one here, that the younger brother of my first true love, was inadvertently going to lead me to your mother! Buzz had been living in a squat, i only had a bedsit, but said if he didn't mind a sleeping bag on the floor etc etc. he stayed for 4 months (he come down to earn some money, as he was getting married soon to the wonderful Ali. just before xmas (about 8 months later) there was a ring of the bell, and i opened the door, and there was Buzz, with a friend called Big Steve (6'8"!) and had come down for a makeshift stag do (didn't have mobiles back then, made things more random, and more fun!) and they'd got me a ticket to join them to go to a heavy metal concert at the Apollo Hammersmith, it was a mad night etc etc etc, they returned North a few days later, but Buzz said if i ever needed a place to stay, i'd always be welcome. the following xmas i hitched up there (1988, that's the year i spent 6 weeks in Spain and so scared of flying, sold my return ticket, and hitched back!) Buzz picked me up from Mold, and took me to his mother in laws house just outside of Ruthin, about 5 miles down the road of where you, your mother and gran parents are living now. i was given a lift on the back of a motorbike, when zooming past your grandparents house, and taken to a desolate cottage about 2 miles outside of Corwen. it was cold damp freezing cold damp etc Big Steve turned up as well, and did his usual impersonation of someone with hollow legs, ive never known anyone that could quaff so much beer and be untouched. also, in the garden was a tree rope, and when you swang out, you were faced with a 20 foot drop, i'm terrified of heights, but curiously i thoroughly enjoyed that swing. all this happened about 18 months before meeting your mother, about 5 miles down the road from where she was!! early January i hitched back down to Watford, and hated Watford more than ever i was still a wild child, left Watford, ended up in Rye Sussex, got a job in The Mermaid on the bar, got involved in a love triangle with 2 women, one called Sue, the other called Amanda, i left Rye and came back to Ruthin, stayed with Buzz, Ali, and their baby for 2 weeks, got a living in job at Ruthin Castle, and 6 months later met your mother, and 8 years later to the day, decided we were ready to give each other a present of life, that had a 9 month delay on delivery! so basically, you were a gift of love, what follows in life, lays in the lap of the gods, and no-one can even guess what follows, and as for my other gender, that i would of kept dormant had the marriage not ended, so up to 7 years ago, i didn't imagine that i would be having gender reassignment surgery, and here i am 1 year later after surgery, reminiscing over a chance encounter, and a first love, and that Jacquis younger brother Mark aka Buzz inadvertently led me to your mother, and your amazing birth, and the brilliant insane looking midwife with the bushy eyebrows who could of been the twin sister of Big Steve, as she was also incredibly tall, whose every other word was brilliant! she was brilliant, and you were 10 days early, tiny and beautiful as ever, hard to believe you're now 21, and one year older than your mother was when i first met her. time flies quicker than a butterfly in a hurricane xx