Sometimes I come across the kind of story that I will really love. The kind of story that shines a light on who we are and aren't as human beings.
It concerns a woman who lives in the Australian state of Tasmania, called Clodagh Jones who was married to marine scientist Robert Jones for 52 years.
For the last ten of those years she was wife as well as carer when Robert Jones spiralled into dementia, which eventually took his life in 2011. Here's where the story starts to get interesting.
Robert Jones was a hoarder who apparently kept everything that passed across his desk or took his eccentric eye.
Clodagh Jones was a professional indexer. It's about being pedantic and meticulous. Clodagh had been recognised for her work. She won an award for her incredibly detailed guide through the journals of a well-known Tasmanian explorer.
You can probably see where this is going.
After her husband died, Clodagh began emptying boxes of stuff that he had kept. It was all kinds of stuff. She'd turned up patents for fishing gear, photographs of famous philosophers, even top-secret papers for work he did for the UK Defence Department during the Cold War in the 1960s. But through her diligent searching, meticulous Clodagh found a box of papers, she was probably never meant to find, that would literally change her life forever.
Hidden among his archives were letters he had written to his lovers, photographs and receipts for jewellery that were presents for his many mistresses.
Clodagh, who had borne him three children and nursed him devotedly for ten years through a cruel and insidious disease, was understandably shocked by this revelation.
But after she had recovered from her shock what Clodagh did next might surprise you.
Of the many lovers her husband had throughout his life she discovered one to whom he had professed particular devotion. She was a much younger woman.
So Clodagh wrote her a letter. Not one full of vitriol, spite or vindictive anger. In fact it was the exact opposite. It was a warm letter admitting that she had only just discovered the affair and while the news of it was devastating, she was also intrigued.
Clodagh ended the letter by asking the woman to write back to her believing that her husband's lover might be able to tell her things she never knew about the man she'd been married to for 52 years. To her surprise the woman replied almost immediately, admitting to the affair and apologising for all of the hurt she had caused. But that was not the end of the matter. In an even more surprising twist the two women who shared the one man have become firm friends.
It concerns a woman who lives in the Australian state of Tasmania, called Clodagh Jones who was married to marine scientist Robert Jones for 52 years.
For the last ten of those years she was wife as well as carer when Robert Jones spiralled into dementia, which eventually took his life in 2011. Here's where the story starts to get interesting.
Robert Jones was a hoarder who apparently kept everything that passed across his desk or took his eccentric eye.
Clodagh Jones was a professional indexer. It's about being pedantic and meticulous. Clodagh had been recognised for her work. She won an award for her incredibly detailed guide through the journals of a well-known Tasmanian explorer.
You can probably see where this is going.
After her husband died, Clodagh began emptying boxes of stuff that he had kept. It was all kinds of stuff. She'd turned up patents for fishing gear, photographs of famous philosophers, even top-secret papers for work he did for the UK Defence Department during the Cold War in the 1960s. But through her diligent searching, meticulous Clodagh found a box of papers, she was probably never meant to find, that would literally change her life forever.
Hidden among his archives were letters he had written to his lovers, photographs and receipts for jewellery that were presents for his many mistresses.
Clodagh, who had borne him three children and nursed him devotedly for ten years through a cruel and insidious disease, was understandably shocked by this revelation.
But after she had recovered from her shock what Clodagh did next might surprise you.
Of the many lovers her husband had throughout his life she discovered one to whom he had professed particular devotion. She was a much younger woman.
So Clodagh wrote her a letter. Not one full of vitriol, spite or vindictive anger. In fact it was the exact opposite. It was a warm letter admitting that she had only just discovered the affair and while the news of it was devastating, she was also intrigued.
Clodagh ended the letter by asking the woman to write back to her believing that her husband's lover might be able to tell her things she never knew about the man she'd been married to for 52 years. To her surprise the woman replied almost immediately, admitting to the affair and apologising for all of the hurt she had caused. But that was not the end of the matter. In an even more surprising twist the two women who shared the one man have become firm friends.
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