TRUE LOVE

Love doesn’t always run smoothly, but here are four Kent couples at different stages of their lives and relationships who believe it really is worth fighting for – and celebrating

- Liz White

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.