Every day, he uttered words of love. Dark hair, sultry eyes and a generous mouth curved into a smile at Sylvia’s attempts at dancing. At night, she’d kiss his lips and he would smile that heart churning smile which left her feeling dizzy like her head was spinning in pink candy floss.

He watched her grow in both mind and body. Daily, she’d share her secret thoughts, plans and hates with him but he never mocked or chided. He promised love, many times, in his own special way. Then Sylvia met someone else and they drifted apart. When that love and other loves died natural deaths, she always returned to him and, as he listened to her woes, his brown-eyed gaze seemed to absorb all her emotional pain.

One day, Sylvia met someone special and fell in love; a love of a very different kind and her old passion was almost forgotten, but now and again, she caught sight of him. Heard his voice reminding her of those many hours they’d once shared closeted away in her bedroom. Then on August 16th, 1977, Sylvia heard the tragic news. Elvis Presley, had died.

On hearing the news, she wept over the death of her teenage idol as her three children asked, ‘Mummy? Why are you crying?’