This story is taken from A Bridge to the Other Side: Death in the Folk Tradition by Michael Berman, due to be published by Moon Books in 2012. The ISBN Number is 978-1-78099-256-3 :

Daniel’s Last Wish

Daniel wasn’t stupid and realised he was going downhill fast, with probably little time left. It was a faulty heart valve coupled with a prolapsed disc in his back – each problem adversely impacting on the other and leaving him virtually bedbound. As for the option of an operation to replace the valve, it was deemed too risky given his age and generally precarious state of health.

It was therefore a time for settling unfinished business, for making plans for what would follow and Daniel had one last wish – to renew his wedding vows with the woman he loved as their original wedding day had unfortunately been one to forget rather than remember. Most of it had been spent with them queuing up for an appointment in the Home Office in Croydon, trying to sort out his wife’s status in the UK, leading to frayed tempers on both sides by the time they eventually reached the Registry Office for the nothing but business like ceremony.

Beach weddings in some exotic location such as the Caribbean were by this stage out of the question, with Daniel being unable to walk more than ten paces without having to pause to catch his breath, so something closer to home and more manageable needed to be considered instead, and it was while doing some research for one final book he was planning to write that he came upon a solution to the problem: The Stone of Odin in the Orkney Islands. And this is what he found written about it:

A young man had seduced a girl under promise of marriage, and she proving with child, was deserted by him: The young man was called before session; the elders were particularly severe. Being asked by the minister the cause of so much rigour, they answered, "You do not know what a bad man this is; he has broken the promise of Odin."

Being further asked what they meant by the promise of Odin, they put him in mind of the stone at Stenhouse, on the island of Pomona, with the round hole in it; and added, that it was customary, when promises were made, for the contracting parties to join hands through this hole, and the promises so made were called the promises of Odin.

It was said that a child passed through the hole when young would never shake with palsy in old age. Up to the time of its destruction, it was customary to leave some offering on visiting the stone, such as a piece of bread, or cheese, or a rag, or even a stone.

Unfortunately, he did not read to the end of the account, though, for if he had, he would have discovered the stone no longer existed:

The Odin stone, long the favourite trysting-place in summer twilights of Orkney lovers, was demolished in 1814 by a sacrilegious farmer, who used its material to assist him in the erection of a cow house. This misguided man was a Ferry-Louper (the name formerly given to strangers from the south), and his wanton destruction of the consecrated stone stirred so strongly the resentment of the peasantry in the district that various unsuccessful attempts were made to burn his house and holdings about his ears.

However, what Daniel did manage to discover was that

Upon the first day of every New Year the common people, from all parts of the country, used to meet at the Kirk of Stainhouse (Stennis), each person having provision for four or five days; they continued there for that time dancing and feasting in the kirk.

This meeting gave the young people an opportunity of seeing each other, which seldom failed in making four or five marriages every year; and to secure each other's love, till an opportunity of celebrating their nuptials, they had resource to the following solemn engagements:

The parties agreed stole from the rest of their companions, and went to the Temple of the Moon, where the woman, in presence of the man, fell down on her knees and prayed the god Wodden (for such was the name of the god they addressed upon this occasion) that he would enable her to perform all the promises and obligations she had and was to make to the young man present, after which they both went to the Temple of the Sun, where the man prayed in like manner before the woman, then they repaired from this to the stone [known as Wodden's or Odin's Stone], and the man being on one side and the woman on the other, they took hold of each other's right hand through the hole, and there swore to be constant and faithful to each other.

This ceremony was held so very sacred in those times that the person who dared to break the engagement made here was counted infamous, and excluded all society.

The "Temple of the Moon" is a circle of standing stones also known as the "Ring of Stennis" and the "Temple of the Sun" is a circle of standing stones also known as the "Ring of Brogar." [Source: County Folk-Lore, vol. 3: Examples of Printed Folk-Lore Concerning the Orkney & Shetland Islands, collected by G. F. Black and edited by Northcote W. Thomas (London: Folk-Lore Society, 1903).]

With the impulsiveness which had always been part of his nature, he immediately set about planning a trip to the islands, as he felt this would be the ideal place for what he had in mind. And as he wanted it all to be a surprise, he wouldn’t tell his partner why but gave her the money to have her hair done and to buy a special outfit, and asked her to fix the necessary time off work for the special occasion. .

Due to the by then extremely tenuous state of his health, everything had to be planned down to the last detail, especially the travel and accommodation arrangements, all accomplished over the Internet from his bed with great secrecy. A Magical Mystery Tour is what he called it, and to stop her from having any inkling of where they would be going, he told her to take her passport with her for the trip..

By the time they eventually reached the destination, what little energy he had left was long since exhausted. His wife, realising how tired he was, made him go straight to bed, where he quickly fell asleep. Before he did so, though, he said something strange to her, something she was never to forget.

“Although we met late in life and I was never able to do some of the things with you that I had been able to do when I was younger, I want you to know that you were the only partner I was ever faithful to, despite all the suspicions you had of me earlier in our relationship.”

"Don’t worry about that now, you silly old sausage, it’s time to sleep – you’ve got a long day ahead of you tomorrow” was her answer. And these were the last words they were ever to say to each other because Daniel closed his eyes, never to open them again in this world.

Fortunately, she had the support of a large circle of friends who arranged for the transfer of the coffin back to London, where he had made arrangements to be buried in a plot by the side of his parents. Unlike her, never being the most sociable of persons, Daniel had only a very small circle of friends, and they barely filled the hall where the prayers were conducted prior to the procession to the grave. As for the special outfit Daniel had given her money to buy for the renewal of their vows, although its colourful nature caused the rabbi to raise his eyebrows and the more conservative family members to show their disapproval too, she defiantly wore it to the funeral service as she knew such “a poke in the eye” to the establishment would have pleased him a lot. And that was her gift to him.