Who will my wife marry next?

00:00 06:14

Nicholas Farrell has narrated this article for you to listen to.

Since I had a brush with death a couple of years ago, I have often wondered who my far younger wife, Carla, might marry after she has buried me.

When I was out for the count in intensive care in Ravenna, the hospital’s duty priest, an Argentinian, even administered the last rites. ‘They do it just in case these days,’ Carla told me, as if it had all been a bit of a laugh, which I suppose it may well be if you believe, like her, that death is the prelude to eternal life.

The other day, a herd of donkeys came charging into our garden out of the blue and I soon put two and two together They belonged to our nearest neighbour, Gianni, a farmer. Though rather on the short side for a cowboy, Gianni does look and behave like one, with his Stetson hat and red handkerchief tied around his throat.