Koh Samui is an island in the Gulf of Thailand, known for its beaches and resorts, and a common destination for people planning their retirement there. The stories set here usually carry that holiday backdrop: someone who traveled to unwind and ended up rebuilding their whole life around a person they met on the island. Widowhood also shows up often as a starting point — people who arrived alone after losing a partner, not expecting to find anything like love again, let alone this far from home.
Graham, a 51-year-old Scot, first came to Thailand at 32, on holiday after a long breakup. In the bars of Koh Samui he met Dao, the woman he'd later marry. Nineteen years, a Thai wedding, and a house built in Isaan later, he lives surrounded by her family and wouldn't change a thing.
In 2005, heartbroken and with a student loan installment just paid out, I spent a week in Bangkok trying to drink the pain away. I went back nine more times in my early twenties. On one of those trips, in Koh Samui, I met the woman I now live with in England, and with whom I have two daughters.
At 70 he became a widower after forty-three years of marriage. His daughter booked him a flight to Koh Samui that gave him back what he thought was lost.