Geraldine and Steve
Steve slowed down as he saw two of his friends on their bikes ahead pull into the layby talking to a young woman in her car. As he drove in his two friends headed off with an empty petrol can.
As Geraldine waited for the fuel, she was unaware of Steve stood next to her car. So, after reaching to pick something up from the floor she was really surprised to see him there. Steve asked her name and on impulse she said it was Deana. She had never liked her name. Steve introduced himself and Geraldine said that she hadn’t seen his bike parked at the back of the car.
That day, as they walked hand in hand through the countryside, they were completely at ease with each other. Looking out at the Herefordshire valley they started to get to know one another and shared their dreams for the future. Geraldine told Steve she wasn’t married but failed to mention that she was divorced and had three children. Resting against a fallen log both Steve and Geraldine were clearly attracted to each other.
Just a month earlier Geraldine had been preparing to visit a man she had thought she was in love with but now realised it had only been an intense, short-lived infatuation for him. Michael had been an accountant in a hotel but was now on remand in prison for embezzlement. His true circumstances had been a shock to her and although the relationship had finished completely eight months ago, he had asked her to visit him in prison and so she had been planning another visit to take tobacco and books. On the day of the intended visit Geraldine was standing in front of the fireplace, a plastic bag containing cigarettes and books in one hand and car keys in the other when in obedience to a voice, she laid down on the sofa on her back when she clearly heard the lounge door open and the sound of bare feet walking across the carpet towards her. She was unable to open her eyes but found that instead of feeling afraid she had a tremendous sense of peace and felt the unmistakable pressure of hands pressing down on her shoulders. Until she heard the door close, she was unable to open her eyes. Really not sure if she believed in ghosts, she had a clear realisation that she was not go to and visit Michael. Looking back as a Christian she believes that the visitation could only have been an angel.
Geraldine wasn’t ready to share with Steve about her previous marriage as it had been a very unhappy one and her husband had been a very violent and jealous man. After their divorce Geraldine had gained custody of the three children but had received no financial support with her ex-husband who showed no desire to visit his children. With difficulties in paying the rent and making ends meet Geraldine’s parents offered and had the two eldest children, Tracey aged 9 and Steven aged 7, live with them during the week with Geraldine keeping her youngest Darren aged 3. This arrangement was such a hard decision at that time, but it meant that she could get childcare for Darren and she was able to work part time to pay the rent. Geraldine missed Tracey and and Steven so much. So, when Brian, an ex-boyfriend she had known for five years, asked Geraldine to marry him she reluctantly agreed. It simply meant that Geraldine could have the children back full time and with all the children together they could be a family again.
Geraldine was too ashamed to tell Steve of all that was happening, and she felt ashamed that she had promised to marry someone she didn’t love. She longed to unburden herself and tell him everything but they had only just met.
Geraldine and Steve made arrangements to meet again at The Old House, an imposing Jacobean
style Inn. It was during this time together Geraldine decided to wait to tell Steve about her circumstances until the next time they met. Before leaving she handed Steve a small card with her phone number and the name Deana written on. Steve sat with Geraldine in her car for a few minutes before saying goodbye. Suddenly Geraldine heard a voice inside her head say ‘you’re not going to see each other again’ and it was a voice Geraldine recognised. Years ago as a child she and a friend had got in to a man’s car who had promised to buy them ice-cream and as they sat in the car waiting for the man to walk round to the driver’s side she had heard the same voice, gentle but very authoritative, say ‘get out of the car and run’. Hearing this voice again she sobbed recognising this must be God. She shared with Steve what she had just heard but he laughed and held her close reassuring her that he would phone the following evening. As Steve drove off Geraldine didn’t turn to look at him, foolishly believing that if she did the words she had heard might come true. She was confused, her head filled with superstitious nonsense.
Geraldine waited the following evening for Steve’s call but the phone never rang. She was sure he would phone the following day but again no phone call came. She kept her calls brief just in case he rang.
Steve had tried phoning Geraldine every spare moment he had. He had no home phone but
had walked to the phone box many times. Every time he called either the phone was engaged or it
simply rang out. Then one week later after dialling Geraldine’s number many times he felt surprised but optimistic when a Scottish male voice answered. Brian had answered the phone and told Steve there was no one called Deana living there.
Brian told Geraldine that someone had rung for Deana and the following week when Steve rang
again Brian took the call and confirmed once again that Deana didn’t live there. Geraldine couldn’t believe she had missed Steve again and was deeply disappointed.
Ten days later Steve called again and although he heard Geraldine’s voice at the end of the phone he also heard a child call out in the background and realised that his fears were true, she was probably married to the man who had previously answered the phone and she probably had children. That night Steve vandalised the phone box in anger and drank heavily.
Geraldine realised it was Steve and felt numb knowing that Steve wouldn’t call again. She hadn’t taken Steve’s address and so had no way to get hold of him. She couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing him again. Yet she had to be strong for the sake of the children and she would have to try and forget him.
Later that year Steve was out with biker friends at some services when a friend pointed out
Geraldine’s car. She wasn’t alone but was with three children and a tall man. Grabbing his helmet
Steve followed her. As they headed towards London he pursued her. Despite being alongside
the car at one point and signalling to the children looking at him in the back seat Steve finally lost
her. He felt that maybe his friends had been right. Maybe the man was her husband and the children too. He even questioned if Deana was her real name.
Once home Steve decided to get on with his life. He had other girlfriends but it was not the same.
Exactly two years later to the day that he had met Geraldine he began experiencing problems with his one good eye. Steve had not shared with Geraldine that at the ago of two he had lost sight in one eye. With his vision rapidly deteriorating he underwent surgery to correct a detached retina but the surgery was unsuccessful. In fact, his sight rapidly began to fail and Steve found himself totally blind. Steve’s mother had lost her sight when he was only eight years old and they thought that the condition was hereditary. Steve had no idea what he was going to to do with his life. He struggled with being stuck in one place and not being able to go out with out holding on to someone. After long cane training Steve was able to go out independently and three months later he went to a RNIB rehab centre. He was able to learn to type and went from Torquay to Letchworth where he successfully completed a course in light engineering and was able to operate lathe mills and
bench mounted industrial drills. This led Steve to gain employment at a disabled skills centre. During this time Steve kept remembering Geraldine and although he felt she had been the only one for him he also found himself almost hating her. Steve was never short of girlfriends but he now distrusted all women and decided to never again let a woman get under his skin.
Steve began a long road to find the search for truth through Darwin and this theory of evolution, philosophy, cabalism and then the occult. It was through the occult that Steve began personal Tarot card readings for friends.
Geraldine married Brian just three months after meeting Steve. Even before the wedding she knew it wouldn’t last. After eleven months of marriage she told Brian the truth and that she had married him for the financial security. Ironically, there was no financial security as Brian spent his wages on several bottles of whisky every week and gave Geraldine very little money to pay the rent and to buy food. During this time Geraldine decided to start a publishing business, initially publishing magazines for hospital staff social clubs. Within a very short time she was able to employ reps who sold adverts to cover the costs needed. Very quickly the business became successful. Divorcing Brian, Geraldine met Paul a very caring man who was very good to the children. They married in July, 1975. Geraldine felt fondness was a strong enough basis for marriage. She found happiness in the materialistic part of their lives together.
They took the children to Spain and later they honeymooned in different parts of America ending in Mexico City. But there were problems with Paul and the children. Daily there were arguments between Paul and Tracey who was now 15. Geraldine’s business was doing very well and she found solace by escaping to her office. As her relationship with Paul steadily grew worse she felt a separation, until the children were grown up, might be the only solution. With the success of her business she was offered a mortgage in her sole name on a detached four-bedroom house in Eastcote, a sought after place and only a few minutes’ drive from her office. Paul would be able to visit whenever he wanted.
One evening about 6.30pm Geraldine left her office to drive to Pinner en route home. It was a cold and frosty evening and it had begun to spit with rain. She knew she would be late home but Paul would be home and the children would be really hungry. The road from Ruislip to Pinner displayed warnings about black ice and although she kept to the speed limit it was a difficult journey on such a miserable night. As Geraldine drove that night she felt saddened that her marriage to Paul had resulted in separation but there was no going back. Contracts had been signed on her new home and so she had to go ahead with the move. She thought back to Steve and prayed she would find him again.
Suddenly the car skidded from one side of the road to the other and looking ahead Geraldine saw a small van travelling towards her. In the split second that followed Geraldine saw the van driver
and his passenger raise their arms to protect their faces. She desperately tried to steer away from
the collision but the wheels just seemed to spin. It was 1978 and seatbelts were not compulsory. The impact threw Geraldine into the windscreen then hearing the sound of shattering glass she reached out and opened the door but she couldn’t see a thing, everything was black. Screaming out ‘I can’t see’ she collapsed to the ground. Still fully conscious she was taken to hospital by ambulance and then sedated while hundreds of pieces of glass were removed from her eyes and eyebrows. Later a surgeon operated on her eyes for six hours but her sight was not restored. Geraldine had also broken her left ankle in the crash and later she realised that her foot had been trapped and had probably saved her from going straight through the windscreen.
Two weeks later Geraldine was discharged from hospital with bottles of tranquillizers, sleeping pills
and painkillers. Paul had to return to work and the children had to go to school leaving Geraldine at
home alone for most of the day. The tranquilizers made everything seem unreal and although Geraldine knew she was blind she could not come to terms with it. Shortly after she moved in to the new house with the children and Tracey now 16 left school to look after her mum. For two weeks Geraldine would take a taxi to her office but felt it hard to stay awake because of the medication. Publishing needed sight to proof read and edit and very soon the tranquilizers instead of being decreased were increased with repeat prescriptions.
In the first four years after the accident Paul continued to visit but rarely visited before midnight when he had finished drinking. His visits with bottles of wine and cider exacerbated the effects of the tranquilizers. During this time Tracey and Steven began drinking and using cannabis with Geraldine being unaware due to the effect of the tranquilizers.
Paul finally left and Geraldine’s parents arranged for her to go to a rehabilitation centre, the same one that Steve had been to for training a couple of years earlier. The tranquilizers had increased her levels of anxiety much higher than normal so after just 3 weeks Geraldine chose to go home to be with the children. Tracey was now 22, Steven 20 and Darren 16. Geraldine’s parents took her home for the weekend and they discovered a pile of unopened post. They realised that the bank was threatening foreclosure on her home as there was an unpaid secure loan on the property. Geraldine had no recollection of the loan but knew that unless it was repaid in full she would lose the house.
Tracey and Steven found a flat together and Darren moved to a friend’s house in another part of London until he was 18.
Six years after her accident Geraldine moved with her parents to Bristol, miles away from her children. Her new GP increased her medication and she began to have fits. Being referred to a psychiatrist Geraldine was placed on a one-year program to withdraw from the tranquillizers and the sleeping pills that she was addicted to. Every month she became more alert but with this renewed alertness she became more aware of her many losses.
With help from her mother Geraldine made contact with a local church and relationships began to grow with Christians who visited her home. Lyn and Pauline began to share scriptures and recorded many of them for her to listen to. They had a joy and inner peace that Geraldine so desperately wanted. Visiting Alex, a local curate, and his wife Jane they shared the gospel. Wanting to believe Geraldine struggled with the Immaculate Conception and the resurrection feeling both were physical impossibilities. But one evening standing in front of a picture that had been described to her in great detail, The Light of the World by Holman Hunt, she was reminded of the scripture that had inspired the artist. “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hears my voice and invites Me in, I will dine with him and he with Me”. Revelation 3:20.
Remembering that faith was a gift from God, a supernatural gift, one that could not be purchased
but must be sought from God who gives the gift of faith freely, she fell to her knees and repented. With tears of shame she remembered all her sins and she thought of all the people she had hurt. Asking Jesus to forgive her and to help her she slept for the first time in years soundly and deeply for a full eight hours. Waking the next morning she had a new realization, her cynicism and doubt had gone and she knew she had been given the gift of faith that she had asked for. She felt peace.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, the new has come into being”. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Geraldine felt joy and her depression had lifted. By March 1986 her withdrawal program was complete and within months she had learned to cook, use a washing machine and microwave, use a sewing machine and even make curtains. However, Geraldine was acutely aware of her many losses. Not just her sight but her children, her home, her career and her four poodles that had been adopted. She begged for God’s mercy to lift her up as she didn’t want to suffer with depression again. She needed His strength and asked to meet a man to marry and that would allow her to move to her own home near her children in London. She remembered the scripture “Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” Psalm 37:4.
During Braille lessons, her teacher told her about Sound Around, a cassette magazine for blind people. Taking a copy home, she recorded a spot on the pen pal section and soon after began receiving calls from blind men and women. Then one day someone called Steve called telling her that he lived in Shropshire and had been totally blind since 1975. They hit it off straight away and soon they were talking every night in to the early hours. Due to the tranquilizers Geraldine had forgotten about the Steve she had met years before in Herefordshire. But during these conversations she had images in her mind of a young man standing at a bar and through the mirror catching her eye.
One evening, as Geraldine was propped up in bed listening to music and expecting Steve’s phone call when she saw a small child standing at the end of her bed. Immediately she mistook the child for her niece Amy as they were spending Christmas with her in Bristol. It hadn’t occurred to her at the time that she was completely blind and yet she could see this pretty child with blonde hair so clearly. The child smiled but did not say a word and as Geraldine told her to go back to bed she walked towards the door and disappeared. The following day Geraldine told her brother and his wife that Amy had come in to her room wearing her long white nightie but they told her that Amy wore pyjamas and rarely got up during the night.
Geraldine and Steve had that night declared their love for each other and she believed this visit to be an angel. She felt this had confirmed that God had indeed answered her prayer and that He was happy with her situation. It was later that she learned: “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.” Hebrew 13:2.
In March of the following year Geraldine completed her guide dog training and Wenna, a beautiful golden retriever guide dog became a part of her life. Steve also completed his training for his guide dog Quanta. Both met with their guide dogs shortly after Steve moved to Bristol. And it was at this point that Steve had a fairly good idea why there was a familiarity between them but felt he had to be sure before he said anything.
A few months later, with their guide dogs being given credit on local TV and the national press for
bringing them together at the 5th bench in the park Geraldine knew that it was God who had brought them together.
Four years after their marriage Steve gave his life to the Lord. Like Geraldine he had been convicted by the gospel of John. This was the truth he had been searching for. “For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
Two years after their marriage they had moved to Hillingdon in London to a house with a very large
garden just a mile from each of the three children. And one day her youngest son, Darren called in
with a tray that he had bought with a picture on it called The Old House in Hereford. Before Darren
could begin describing the picture Geraldine began describing its Jacobean style and remembered that she had seen it once before.
After Darren had left Geraldine began asking Steve questions and slowly the pieces of her memory began to fit together. Twenty years earlier they had met and fallen in love. In the UK only 4% of blind people are totally blind and the odds of two sighted people within a space of 13 years becoming totally blind and meeting again are astronomically slim!
Both Steve and Geraldine believe that God divinely intervened and in doing so prevented them having any further contact until the time was right.
Romans 8: “For we know that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord, for those who are the called according to His purpose.
In remembrance of Geraldine and Steve.