Love Is Letting Go

 Billy, the next door neighbor to Nellie, has loved her all his life.  They grew up the best of friends in London before WWII.  In the novel, “Nineteen Steps,” he wants to marry her, but he is quite shy.  She falls for another guy, Ray Fleming, an American airman in London.  Nellie thinks Ray is dead since his plane was shot down over France.  She knows she will love him like no other.  But get on with life, right?  She accepts Billy’s proposal.  Now he is at the altar waiting for Nellie to walk down the aisle.  Ray shows up, released from a POW camp, after the war.  Billy leaves the altar and now he, Nellie, and Ray stand at the back of the church.  Billy loves Nellie, but sees in her and Ray a love that is not the same as his and Nellie’s.  Though she has made up her mind to marry Billy, and not hurt him, he knows it is time to let her go.  This is self-sacrifice to the max.  His decision is a painful sacrifice so that Nellie and Ray can have a fullness of life.  For me, this is Good Friday, recently forgotten or ignored by many.