Myrna was four months short of turning 49 when we met. Both of us had been married before - and widowed. I celebrated my 64th birthday in the Phils - being serenaded at 4 o'clock in the morning by a group of Gospel singers called 'The Afterglow Sound' ... whose leader happened to be an old friend and teaching colleague of Myrna's.

, I know ... but this chap was also Head of the Science Faculty at the High School where he and Myrna had taught for a similar length of time (in fact they'd started out together on the same day!). And it was he who'd designed a series of large tarpaulin banners bearing a superimposed picture of me cradling my grandchild - and emblazoned with the words "Welcome Arthur Little" to greet me on my arrival at Davao International Airport, a couple of weeks earlier.

Needless to say, two of these [virtually indestructible] banners have pride of place on the walls of our spare bedroom ... and remain among my most~prized possessions. Recently, my wife took a head & shoulders photo of me clad in a blue tee-shirt & baseball cap when updating my Facebook avatar - as those of you who are members of FB may already have noticed - which featured one of the banners mentioned.