A shamed husband who failed to “meet the expectations” of his wife on her 40th birthday apologised – with a full page newspaper advert.
The unnamed man found himself in the doghouse after leaving it too late to make the landmark day special.
So he paid for a whole page advert in his local paper, the Gloucestershire Echo, which was completely blank apart from the words: “I love you – R”.
Readers were baffled by the message on page 28 of last Saturday’s paper – and now the husband has anonymously explained his actions.
He said: “I did not forget about her birthday, I just ran out of time and did not meet her expectations, and she was very unhappy with me, to say the least.
“She arranged my 40th birthday a few months ago and that was fantastic. She was very upset, and I did not want to just give an excuse, so I decided to take out the advert.”
Despite his grovelling apology, the husband admits he even got that wrong – and his wife had inadvertently seen the ad before he submitted it.
He said: “I had planned a page with graphics, but my wife saw in my email inbox an email from the Echo about sizes etcetera and said I shouldn’t do it, so I told her I wouldn’t.
“So I was umm-ing and aah-ing about whether to do it, and then I decided to take a chance and redesign the page, cut all the pictures and patterns, just say a few words and be simplistic.”
Following the ad’s publication the loving parents-of-three, of Winchcombe, Glos., have now reconciled.
The husband said: “My wife thought it was fantastic. She thought it was very classy. We will get the page framed. It has turned out to be a lovely story, I’m pleased to say.”
