I wrote a series of memoirs recently to work out why I’ve had a stalker for years. That series never felt complete, because it never mentioned a person who was both significant and insignificant at the same time. So here’s the missing piece…..
The previous part is here..
https://uncoffined.com/2025/08/19/when-you-meet-the-wrong-girl-part-one
I was Marilyn’s flatmate for several years, and we had a very platonic relationship. She was always on struggle street due, I think, to her having been brought up that way, yet she was very honest, and had a lot of integrity.
Unfortunately she kept making those poor choices due to not knowing any better.
Several other things held her back
-an aunt who told her she was an unwanted child,
-an ex-boyfriend who had left her on her birthday (that hurt).
So she struggled on alone with her pets (samoyed dog and two cats) for companionship.
She had an older brother who was mentally handicaped which I think had an effect on her and her siblings -one of those effects was that she had a huge amount of empathy.
To the average person, she probably looked pathetic, if they noticed her at all.
On one level, I didn’t dare ask her out, least I ruin a good friendship, and I had no idea about that sort of stuff anyway.
On another level, I always felt she would hold me back with her bad financial decisions. That in turn would eventually lead to a conflict with her family and who would win that?
So I did nothing, yet she wanted more and started showing that in subtle ways. In hindsight I missed a lot of those, but one of the more obvious ones was when she invited me to share a bath with her. I politely mumbled about too much water in the bath and felt a bit embarrassed about it.
From then on, things started spiralling out of control, and she started questioning herself what was wrong -was it her poor family?, no money?, what?
For reasons I still dont really understand, she got a boyfriend from somewhere, but not to piss me off (she just wasn’t wired that way). It was almost like I was meant to see the value of her and a relationship, and win her over.
And thats where fate intervened which is continued in part two.
https://uncoffined.com/2025/08/20/when-you-meet-the-wrong-girl-part-two/
Sometimes you meet people that aren’t quite right for you, but leave you in a better place than you were.
Post script,
I chanced upon her several times from afar on my daily walk many years later -coincidence, was it really her?, what did she want?
Just more unanswered questions that I thought it best not to go looking for answers to, at the time.
Uncoffined 