A few days before the wedding Basil took Madge to see This is the Life. On the way to the cinema he told her that he would be able to accompany her to the wedding because he had been assured of getting the day off from Movements HQ. One by one, a solution was found to each problem and by the time the big day came around, Madge could hardly wait.
The arrival of two camouflaged army three-tonners carrying friends of the bridegroom from their base heralded the start of the wedding day. Madge and Vera watched as the troops clambered off the vehicles and transformed them within minutes from dust and grime-coated old bangers into truly glorious wedding transport. The boys simply draped great big Union Jack flags over the lorries and somehow attached massive bunches of roses to the vehicles.
As Madge changed into her bridesmaid outfit she made two important decisions about the wedding. First, she was going to wear next to no make-up. The advice of the splendid old lady at the Welcome Ball in Bombay had proved 100 per cent right on numerous occasions and on what was already a sticky and humid day she mentally thanked her for the umpteenth time. The second decision had taken a lot more time and thought. On the one hand, high heels were always a plus because they added height. On the other, she knew they would play havoc with her feet and scrunch her toes if she had to stand for any great length of time. Then there was that walk from her basha up and down the hill that could be tricky even on a good day.
What would Mum say? Madge asked herself, and the answer came like a bolt from the blue. Madge was taking her favourite handbag anyway and both the nurses’ lace-ups and her high heels just about fitted in. So for the walk back to the big house and the first part of the day she would wear the lace-ups and then she would change into her high heels for the reception.
As luck would have it, Madge was more than happy with the shoe arrangement because there was a mix-up with transport to the church and the girls had to cadge a lift in one of the flag-covered army lorries. Madge watched as Vera tried to climb into the cabin in her high heels. She laughed as the men almost fell over themselves scrambling to help her up.
The little church in Chittagong was already filling up as they waited in the vestibule for the bride to arrive. Madge smiled as she looked to her left to see a group of soldiers that included handsome bridegroom Charles nervously puffing away on his last cigarette as a single man.
‘What a lovely old church this is,’ said Madge to Vera. ‘I didn’t even know it was here. That design with those lovely white spires makes me wonder if it was built by the Portuguese.’
Basil then arrived and couldn’t help but laugh when Madge walked over and asked him to look after her handbag, which by then contained her nurses’ lace-up shoes. She gave him a gentle but loving hug, followed by a welcome kiss and smiled sweetly. ‘Take my word for it, Basil, the bag matches your outfit!’
Just then the most magnificent maroon Humber Super Snipe driven by an Indian chauffeur with a black peaked cap came around the bend. The six-cylinder engine growled gently and the car sported a spare wheel alongside the bonnet. A spectacular chrome-plated emblem of a bird with a long silver beak gleamed in the afternoon sun and white-trimmed tyres made it even more special. It looked like something straight from a Pinewood Studios film. Madge almost laughed out loud when Vera whispered, ‘Where on earth did they get their hands on a car like that in a place like Chittagong?’
As Madge and Vera moved to help the bride alight, the aroma of expensive leather drifted from inside the vehicle. The girls embraced.
‘You look so beautiful, Sally,’ Madge said, standing back and admiring her long-sleeved, high-necked cream cotton gown and the full, silk veil that swept down to her waist.
‘Thank you,’ she replied, smiling, ‘but I’m feeling very nervous right now!’
If the car was impressive, the inside of the church was breathtaking in its beauty with lotus flowers everywhere. The sacred lotus is for Hindus a symbol of beauty, fertility and eternity; to the Buddhists of Burma the exquisite bloom represents purity and tranquillity. Sally had told Madge she had chosen lotus flowers in the hope they would finally bring her some good fortune.
The nervousness that both Madge and Vera felt as they waited in the vestibule was calmed in the gentlest of ways by the Reverend Davies, who greeted them as old friends and said how colourful and stylish their gowns were. He then proceeded to conduct a service of such tenderness that the congregation, who lived day to day on the fringe of infinite savagery, floated in a sea of very welcome tranquillity.
She glanced over to the bride. She really does look stunning, Madge thought to herself. A ray of light shone through a window high on the church wall to act almost as a spotlight to accentuate the delicate little freckles on the bride’s face that beamed with happiness.
Madge wondered what was coming when Reverend Davies said that they would take a moment to forget the turmoil through which they were living and think instead of three simple things that feature in Corinthians 13:13. When he began to read the passage from the New Testament she was so profoundly moved that she wished she had been sitting alongside Basil to share the moment.
‘If I speak in the tongue of men or
