Hi everyone. Here I am again, scribbling a few notes from here in deepest Devon. As I look out the window, the trees are really starting to change colour in the garden, and they will soon be falling onto the lawn. I did a post around this time last year about leaves, and I will put it up again fairly soon for my newer Followers.
The house is very quiet again at the moment, because Emma, Eleanor & Alfred set off at 8 a.m. this morning for the long drive back to France. It's always sad saying goodbye, but they will be here again on the 16th December until just after the new year. My son-in-law will be arriving on the 22nd December, so they will be here again before I know it. As they live so far away, I am really very fortunate in just how often we do get to seem them.
Many of my older Followers will know that I set up a Friends' Group here in Ivybridge where I live, on behalf of Children's Hospice South West as they had set out to raise five million pounds to build a new (and third) Childrens' Hospice in the South West of England. There are only 6 of us and, in the three years since we set up, we have organized lots of fund-raising events and sent off £13,000 towards the fund. We had a meeting here earlier this morning to plan a list of events for next year, which will include a very popular quiz evening, a fashion show linked up with our local Boutique, coffee mornings, afternoon cream teas and a musical evening in September.
The good news is that the new Hospice has now been completed, ahead of schedule, and the first families will be able to use it as from early December. It is fantastic how much the local community came together, businesses, radio stations and so on, to raise that five million pounds in just three years. When you look at the poor little children who have to attend the Hospice, it just makes you so sad, and it certainly makes you realize how very blessed you are to have healthy children and grandchildren.
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| The New Hospice (Little Harbour). It looks a bit bare at the moment, but it will look lovely once all the plants grow up in a couple of years. I have been privileged to visit the other hospices on several occasions, and it really is wonderful the work that they do there. They are for life-limited children, i.e. children who are not expected to reach adulthood, and they really do care for the whole family, including the parents, siblings and grandparents. One of the things I was impressed with was how each child that visits the Hospice for any length of time, really does think that they have their very own bedroom there. They have their own books, pictures, soft toys, duvet covers etc. When they leave, and the next child arrives, it is all carefully packed away, and the next lot of things are put around for the incoming child. A detailed photo is taken each time, so that everything is just as they left it when the children return to that room. I think it is tiny details like that, that are so important. "While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about." ~Angela Schwindt |
