01/05/2026
‘People often ask how long Christine and I were married, or how we met, and I always smile because the truth is we knew from the very first night that we belonged together.’
Please take a moment today to read Christine’s Sobell story, very kindly shared with us by her husband, Robert. 💜
If you’d like to share your story, let us know by emailing mail@sobellhospice.org.
‘In April 1988, I’d just been posted back to RAF Benson after returning from overseas. I was a Chief Technician enjoying a rare quiet pint on the May Bank Holiday weekend with a colleague. The bar was quite busy when a woman walked up to me and asked if she could look through my music tapes, which meant I had to go back to my room to fetch them. She didn’t like a single one, mind you, but she made sure we had reason to keep talking. Ten minutes later, she asked me to dance. I said no. She said that she never asked twice. She asked again. I said no again. Eventually, she came back a third time: “I’m making an exception. Would you like to dance?” My mate nudged me and said, “For crying out loud, Bob, go and dance with her.”
And so, I did. We stepped into a little room with a glitter ball that wasn’t even meant to be open that night. In those next two and a half hours of talking, something happened that neither of us expected. By the time we walked back out, we’d already decided we were going to get married.
Her name was Christine. She’d lost her first husband suddenly, and she had two grown-up sons. She was bright, funny, and warm, and that night was the first time she’d been out socially since her husband died. The next morning, she phoned me from the village. She said she remembered what I’d been wearing, but not exactly what I looked like. “Come up,” I told her. And she did.
We got engaged that August and married on 17 June the following year, in 1989.
Life was good for many years, but in 2007 everything changed. After struggling with her health, Christine was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. It was a complete shock, as she didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, and didn’t do any of the things people associate with liver disease. But the doctors told us that her life expectancy was no more than ten years. We walked out of the hospital feeling numb…’
Continue reading Christine’s story 👉 bit.ly/christinessobellstory
