My home town of Ballymena in Northern Ireland has been featuring on the main news over the last couple of days. Unfortunately, it is for all the wrong reasons. There has been rioting and destruction of property and quite a few policemen have been injured. It is being blamed on racial attacks. Many of the…

A couple of Saturday’s ago I took the train to London, Liverpool Street, to meet my son. Richard had just relocated from Singapore back to the UK. He had quite a bit of luggage and not enough hands to move everything so I wanted to do my motherly duty and help him with it. While I…

I recently saw this quote by Maya Angelou (1928-2014) “If I could give you one thought, it would be to lift someone up. Lift a stranger up – lift her up. I would ask you, mother and father, brother and sister, lovers, mother and daughter, father and son, lift someone up. The very idea of…

Do you ever feel that “Big Brother” is watching you? A couple of weeks ago I wrote about wearing my nurse’s uniform with pride. Well, today a photo popped up on Facebook of newly qualified nurses standing in the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. It was taken in the late 1960’s and…

I’m reading a book at the minute with the main character being a woman who has lost her husband and baby in an accident. After a year of sinking to the depths of despair and becoming addicted to painkillers and alcohol she gets “her act together” and stops abusing herself but becoming “clean” is being…

Over the last few days, we have seen a lot of people wearing uniforms. From the Veterans with their rows of polished medals to the men and women in today’s Armed Forces. The pride was there for all to see. When I was nursing in the seventies I wore my uniform with pride too. Our blue…

When I was a child I really didn’t like walking over bridges and if the river underneath was in flood, I was terrified. Most weekends my family walked to visit relatives and we had to cross a river. Most times I refused to walk over and my father had to carry me. I can still…

I have recently read an article entitled, “What should Ministers wear?” There were four different personal answers from four different people. It got me thinking about what I wear when attending church. I was raised to believe that it was respectful to wear “Sunday Best” when attending services. I find that I still do this…

Many years ago, a friend crocheted a cross bookmark for me and gave me a copy of the poem, “The Cross in My Pocket.” The poem serves as a reminder of the importance of having a relationship with our Lord. It reminds me to be thankful for all my blessings and to aim to serve…

I really enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles which makes it easy for my family at Christmas and at my birthday to get me presents. This past Christmas my husband bought me a set of three in one box. They are all puzzles of British scenes. The one I have just finished is Gold Hill in Dorset.…