Weymouth writer shares poetry book inspired by late husband

Pat Dodge is an author and poet and takes a lot of inspiration from the countryside and ‘the relationships that have played a major part in her life so far,’ including the ultimate one with her husband Derek.

The Lessons of Love by Pat Dodge (Image: NQ)

Sadly, Derek passed away a few years ago, but his memory lives on within the pages of poetry that Pat has written – and has now been published.

The writer has always had a passion for poetry and recounted that ‘when she was a little girl, she lived with her grandmother, mother and father, and I wrote a little poem about the cats that they always had - and that’s how it started.’

Two of the other books Pat has written (Image: Supplied)

She met her husband when she was 27 after attending a ‘very boring party.’

Pat said: “I looked across the room and looked at this man and thought 'well at least he looks intelligent', so I went up to him and said hello. He was very naughty, but he was the kind of man that could be, and he was very charming.

“After we had a chat and got a bit more friendly, I didn’t realise that I was going to meet him again. I took my boss’ car to fill it up with petrol one day and when I got there, he was at the very same place, filling up his car and he said, ‘are you going to have that drink with me now?’ and I said 'I don’t know about that'.

“What I didn’t realise was that he had put a little note in my bag before he drove off. I thought that I was going to make the worst mistake of my life. I phoned up a friend of mine and asked for advice and she told me to go for it.

“He said 'oh are you coming for a drink – if you like you can come to my home and I can show you the garden' and we ended up sitting out there and drinking – and that was it – it never stopped.”

Derek and Princess Anne (Image: Supplied)

The pair were married for 50 years and travelled the world together due to Derek’s job as a pilot.

Pat said: “We had such a wonderful life and he would take me over the world and we would go to America and various other places. We loved parties and going out to places and for fifty years I had a great time.

“It was a wonderful life and when he died there wasn’t anything left. Once I met Derek there was never going to be any going back – there was never going to be anybody worth it.”

Derek flying a plane (Image: Supplied)

From her relationship, Pat has two step-daughters, Caroline and Deborah.

Pat uses writing as ‘a way to keep Derek’s memory alive' and whilst he was alive, following a stroke, she would sometimes read him her works.

Pat and Derek (Image: Supplied)

Her recently published poetry book is titled ‘The Lessons of Love’.

She said she 'wanted to voice how she feels and she wants other people to understand that love is such a precious thing which is so important and you have to make the most of it because it doesn’t last forever on this earth.'

She added: “Especially after Derek had been so ill. I just started writing the poetry which to me had opened to me the actual thing about really loving somebody and it’s painful sometimes and which is why the poetry can be very sad sometimes.”

St Valentine's Day poem (Image: Supplied)

One of the poems that Pat wrote about love is titled 'St Valentine's Day' and the first letter of each paragraph spells out 'I love you.'

Pat has had a large quantity of the books printed and has considered selling them at local bookshops at a later date.