The Bookie and the Baptist Girl, by Alan Cain

ALAN Cain clearly remembers the moment he first set eyes on Rosie Brown.

Living in London at the time, he was in The Viaduct Inn, known locally as the ‘V’, in Uxbridge Road, Hanwell.

‘Rosie ducked her five feet five and a half inch frame under the doorway, which held a sign ‘Duck or Grouse’ that suggested you needed to,’ he recalls, ‘Rosie always claimed she was tall enough to be a policewoman, though personally I always doubted the extra half inch.’ It was January 2002, and the Bradford-born mental health service worker was working in London. He was plagued with bouts of homesickness. The ‘V’ was among places of refuge as he settled into Metropolitan life.

Alan documents their meeting in a moving tribute to Rosie - a book which was years in the making. The Bookie and the Baptist Girl details the couple’s blossoming relationship and their life together before an event that was to change Alan’s life forever.

Their first encounter was unremarkable. ‘No feelings of instant attraction or love at first sight, no flashing of lights, other than the ones in the loos that were manfully attempting to stave off the effects of the leaking roof. No arrows flying through the air,’ he writes.

It was only later that they both realised how the occasion had registered with both of them.

But at the time, it was, as Alan describes: ‘Two people destined for a future together, meeting for the very first time with absolutely no idea of what would lie in store for them.’ Alan clearly remembers Rosie’s ‘incredible’ smile, ‘which, when aimed in your direction, would completely and immediately disarm you.’ Originally from the Isle of Wight, Rosie, then 36, worked as an art therapist. Alan was 50 ‘very early retired from the NHS’ and in London to work temporarily to top up his pension.

At the time Alan was going through an amicable divorce from his wife of 24 years and mother of his two children, Jude, who lives in West Yorkshire. The couple had decided to use a mediation service as opposed to lawyers, to help with the process.

Alan and Rosie - whose name was shortened from Rosemarie and who Alan affectionately called ‘Brownie’ - were friends long before their relationship began. ‘Rosie realised her feelings for me first, says Alan, ‘A hand around the waist at the bar of the ‘V’ was the deal clincher, as she told me some months later. The feeling was ‘electric’, she had said.’ The pair eventually moved into a garden flat, where they lived a blissful existence, enjoying simple pleasures: nights in with a takeaway and a bottle of wine, evenings in the pub, nights at the dog racing track.

Rosie was raised a Baptist, and her faith continued to be important to her.The bookie of the title refers to Alan’s years as a partner in City Bookmakers in Queensbury, where he had always intended to take Rosie. But Alan was never able to do that, nor was Rosie ever able to show him her beloved Isle of Wight.

One morning, in February 2009, he awoke to a strange sound from his partner, who was lying in bed next to him. ‘It was a sound I’d never heard before, chilling and devastating.’ That noise never leaves Alan. ‘it remains the last noise I heard Rosie make,’ he says. Rosie, who was fit and healthy, had died in her sleep aged 43.

Alan’s life became a daze, as he struggled through her funeral in the Isle of Wight. Alan, who has moved back to West Yorkshire, has reproduced Rosie’s journal in full in his book. The entries are interesting and lively, documenting her travels and the people she met along the way.

Alan remembers his soul mate through her art - he has around 160 of her paintings, many of which decorate the walls of his flat.

The book is available at £11.99 from alancain017@btinternet.com or ring 07883016075. It is also available at The Book Case in Hebden Bridge.