Reg loved Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem, “Gunga Din”; he could recite it word for word, and sometimes did (when urged), much to the amusement of his friends and neighbours. Reg was a great character, which is why Chris and I still speak of him quite often even though he passed away about ten years ago.

Only this morning I said something (so unmemorable that I can’t remember) to Chris and he responded with a Reg quote. It took me back to a time before Chris and I were married… It was perhaps the first occasion that Chris was coming to see me in the role of lover.

In those days I used to rent the upper half of this house and Reg regularly popped over from next door for a chat in my kitchen. I can see him in my mind’s eye now; he had twinkling blue eyes and rather long hair for an old man – it was white and unkempt, and matched his beard. We were sat at the big gate-leg table that I had painted white; the walls were painted lemon yellow; and the afternoon sunshine came in through the window. I had been telling Reg that I was in love (with Chris, of course). Suddenly, I realised that Chris would be at the front door in twenty minutes…

“Oh, oh, do I look alright?” I asked.

Reg nodded his approval and grinned (he always thought I looked alright).

“Oh, and what about the house? Do you think I should run the Hoover over the carpet? Is it tidy enough? What do you think?”

“Sally,” Reg stood up to go, “if you can’t keep it up for the next thirty years, don’t bother!”

Seventeen years later we are still saying it. And whenever we say it we think of Reg and his “Gunga Din”.

BY RUDYARD KIPLING