Elsie and Trevor were both 21 years old when they died. There are so many tragic and horrific stories to recount, that I consider it important not to let the stories be lost in time.
The Longest Day
What I find so strange, is that in that one grave, the five of them are laid to rest, including a wife and her two husbands!
Bella Italia
I am sure I had never thought such words before, but with a raised, stern and firm voice, I equally wagged my fingers at my legs as I said “Padre! Questi gambi sono fatto da Dio!”
Remember! Remember! The 5th of November
Bonfire night & Guy Fawkes As a child, so many of us loved this time of year. There was the fun of dunking our heads in a bowl of water, to catch floating apples, on the evening before All Saints (All Hallows). Better – and sweeter – still, was the practice of tying an…
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Where were you when the Berlin Wall came down? With so many epoch-changing events during a person’s lifetime, the fall of the Berlin Wall ranks as one of the greatest world events during my own life time.
TV interview: Princess Diana and HIV
Some of my WordPress pages have been discovered – twice – by filming companies! The first, resulted in an interview with the wonderful Rupert Everrett. Then, in the week I celebrated my 30th anniversary of starting as a nurse on an HIV ward, I was interviewed for a documentary series on the Royal House of Windsor.
Oskar Kusterer – 12 July 1945
Why should I care? Why is Oskar Kusterer’s memory or memorial significant to me?
12-07-1945
If you don’t want babies …
This story is to do with contraceptive and reproductive health. ‘Oooh, now why should that be the concerns of priests?’ I hear you ask: quite so!
16 VI 1928 – and other Skeletons in the Closet
Like something from a Romeo and Juliette tale, of star-crossed lovers, ‘the end’ was just so tragic, all round.
“It’s going to be a bright, bright sun-shiny day”
What a start to the Bank Holiday sunshine: jumping off the bus the other evening, listening to ChérieFM, the French “pop love music” station, via Bluetooth headset, when my face totally lit up as I heard Johnny Nash singing “I can see clearly now the rain has gone” (1972). I was 15 back then. The early May…
“Don’t you look at ME like that!!!”
On talking to Paul on the phone, yesterday, aka my boyfriend when we were both 17, we shared some stories about a young man we both knew. I think he was slightly older than us at the time, and he re-named himself “Nap”, short for Naparolla (Some Polari-speak lingo, not doubt). From what I recall,…
What’s a ‘wanger’?
The GP had just done a home visit, so she phoned me and asked me!
Tales of my Investiture
Dilectis et Fidelibus nostris What a week to be ill! Two days before the Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace and I come down with sinusitis. Lucky I was well enough for the great day itself (Thursday 7th December 2017), because by Friday night, on top of asthma, I started the most horrendous bronchitis that I have ever had. …
Have you heard the one about a nun, a priest and a clairvoyant?
“Do you believe in love at first sight, or shall I walk round and come back again?”
Do you speak Yugoslavian?
A very well-to-do woman came up to me and asked “Govorite li Jugoslavija?” … I replied “Ne govorim hrvatski”
Where were YOU when Diana died?
I remember a constant flow of funereal music playing on the car radio, interspersed with the National Anthem, repeated every quarter of an hour.
50 years: The Sexual Offences Act 1967
Celebrating 27 July 1967, the 1st partial decriminalisation of male homosex, and the victories to equality won over these past 50 years
You will be more old on Friday!
I took one sip and BANG! my poor head was gone!
Love is …
There’s a time for living, and a time for dying.
[Not] The angel of death!
This is one of two stories I’ll tell you about a hospice I used to visit as a priest. I used to visit the hospice every couple of days or so. The staff new I was a registered nurse, as well as a local Catholic priest. Some days I’d go in early in…
My 'memories, dreams and reflections' 