In Kent we are privileged to enjoy a rich heritage created from love. Kent has the highest percentage of love-inspired place names in the UK – look out for ‘Marriage Wood’, ‘Love Lane’ and ‘Valentine Road’ – and within the county we can walk in the footsteps of Dickens or marvel at the glory of Leeds Castle where the devoted couple King Edward I and Queen Eleanor of Castile forged their home. But are true love stories as prevalent in Kent today as when Dicken’s wrote Oliver Twist or when Dame Vera Lyn first sang about the White Cliffs of Dover?
When we started to talk about love, endless stories emerged but one which caught our attention was the love story of Emma and Steve Perfect. Was their love story as good as their name suggests?
The moment Steve Perfect sat on a park bench waiting to meet his future stepson, was a pivotal moment in his life.
On seeing Steve, five-year-old Finley, dropped the bike he was riding and ran over to him, hugged him tightly and right there and then Steve knew they were going to be a family.
One moment can let love in and for Steve and Emma Perfect that instant solidified their future, a future that had taken over 25 years to become real.
Steve insists he has been in love with Emma since he was five years old, but life dealt their fledgling friendship a curveball. Having been friends all their short lives, in 1992 Emma and Steve found themselves suddenly separated when Steve and his family moved Buffalo, New York and Emma and Steve didn’t see each other for the next 25 years.
“I never forgot her. When I thought of England I thought of Emma,” Steve tells me as we chat in the couple’s house near West Malling, “I wrote Steve a letter when I was in Year 2 but I never sent it; I didn’t realise my Mum had his address,” Emma adds.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 2020 من Kent Life.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 2020 من Kent Life.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
The choice of leaders
It’s a small, scenic Kentish market town on the border with Surrey, famous for not one but two great leaders. We take a look around Westerham
The eco-warriors
Awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2019 in recognition of its research in global nature conservation, the role of Kent-based DICE has never been more relevant
Kent's most CURIOUS MONUMENTS
Our county can boast some of the most celebrated and downright unusual protected mouments in the country
Ghosts of a river's life
Kent Life discovers an an other-worldliness about the marshes, creeks, and saltings of the lower reaches of the river Medway
The return of the son
The Unknown Warrior’s journey from the World War One battlefields via Dover to his resting place in Westminster Abbey is 100 years old this month
We will remember
In a year when we got an inkling of what living through a war means, we remember the 75th anniversary of the end of the Great War
Age-old advice
Just become a grandparent for the first time? Perhaps you need a little guidance, so here are some top tips about how to embrace your new family role
10 GOOD REASONS TO VISIT Medway Towns
A vast Dockyard, a Napoleonic fort and a JCB diggers theme park - let’s visit Chatham and Medway
KENT'S CREEPIEST- GHOST STORIES
Here are 10 tales to make you shiver as we celebrate All Hallows’ Eve
Joking apart
From his home in Broadstairs, Royston Robertson comes up with satirical, topical and sometimes just plain silly cartoons