Forgetting Neverland

 

EPILOGUE:

Peter and Wendy settled in Canterbury and had a tough time starting out. Neither of them had money and Peter found it immensely difficult to support a family. An elderly woman by the name of Mrs. Flowers took pity on the young couple and took them in. She gave the family the top floor of her old house and hired Peter to do work around her garden, while Wendy would do the housework that the old lady was too old to do herself. Mrs. Flowers adored and doted on Lily. Peter soon found a job tending to the Westgate Gardens and had a natural skill at helping things to grow. Wendy took a job as a seamstress, which paid little but she was determined to work as well. When they were able, they moved out of Mrs. Flower’s house and rented a little flat not far from the West Gate. Mrs. Flowers still had them over for dinner every Sunday night. She became a grandmother-figure to Lily.

  When Lily turned 4, the family’s lives changed. World War II was beginning and Peter left to become a soldier. When the Germans attacked England, Wendy decided she would send Lily to the countryside for her safety. Two days later, an order was issued that all children would be sent to the country. That very same day, Peter returned home, wounded from battle. He was still cocky and was determined to go back into battle. But the wound was worse than he had thought and it wound up crippling him. The 19 year old now had to use a cane to get around. He decided to move the family to America and they soon settled in New York City. They sent Lily to school and Peter worked for the New York Botanical Gardens. The family was poor but happy.

They had another child, a son whom they named Daniel. Peter and Wendy still had nightmares from time to time but they were always there for each other. And they were completely happy with their new life. When the War was over, Wendy and Peter took the children back to London to find Wendy’s family. She was devastated to hear that her father had passed but her mother and brothers wept when they saw her. While Peter waited with the children, Wendy told her family the entire story of what had happened and at the end, called Peter and the children into the room. Mrs. Darling embraced Peter and Lily and Daniel and held them tightly. The family returned to their home in New York, exchanging letters with Wendy’s family often. They did not return to London again until they received the news that John had been killed. When they returned to America, Michael joined them and found a place not far from the Pans. He married and went on to have three children.

Peter never returned to Neverland. He never forgot about his adventures and he often told his children stories of Tinkerbell and the fairies, of the Lost Boys, of Tiger Lily and the Indians, and of Captain Hook and the Jolly Roger. Wendy watched him as he acted out his favorite parts of the stories and she smiled. It wasn’t the life that she had envisioned when she was a child…but she was happier than she ever thought she could be. And at night when Peter and Wendy would lie in bed and hold each other, they recalled their first meeting, the night a little boy had flown through the window and had taken Wendy to Neverland.

  Wendy died when she was 56 and Peter had a magnificent marble statue erected for her, an image of a beautiful young woman reading a book. Peter grieved for his wife, for once, not being able to follow her. When he turned 58, Peter began to write a children’s book entitled The Tales of the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. His son Daniel and his granddaughter Gwen helped illustrate the book. Unfortunately Peter died before it became successful. As he lay on his deathbed, he whispered to his children and grandchildren that he would fly with his Wendy once more.

 The story of Peter Pan and Wendy Darling is transcendent, almost as old as time. The world knows Peter as the boy who would never grow up but the story of how the boy who wouldn’t grow up, fell in love and left Neverland forever, will never be fully known.

END