Thank you to Pamela for sending me this story:
“It occurred to Pooh and Piglet that they hadn’t heard from Eeyore for several days, so they put on their hats and coats and trotted across the Hundred Acre Wood to Eeyore’s stick house. Inside the house was Eeyore.
“Hello Eeyore,” said Pooh.
“Hello Pooh. Hello Piglet,” said Eeyore, in a Glum Sounding Voice.
“We just thought we’d check in on you,” said Piglet, “because we hadn’t heard from you, and so we wanted to know if you were okay.”
Eeyore was silent for a moment. “Am I okay?” he asked, eventually. “Well, I don’t know, to be honest. Are any of us really okay? That’s what I ask myself. All I can tell you, Pooh and Piglet, is that right now I feel really rather Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. Which is why I haven’t bothered you. Because you wouldn’t want to waste your time hanging out with someone who is Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All, would you now.”
Pooh looked at Piglet, and Piglet looked at Pooh, and they both sat down, one on either side of Eeyore in his stick house.
Eeyore looked at them in surprise. “What are you doing?”
“We’re sitting here with you,” said Pooh, “because we are your friends. And true friends don’t care if someone is feeling Sad, or Alone, or Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. True friends are there for you anyway. And so here we are.”
“Oh,” said Eeyore. “Oh.” And the three of them sat there in silence, and while Pooh and Piglet said nothing at all; somehow, almost imperceptibly, Eeyore started to feel a very tiny little bit better.
Because Pooh and Piglet were There.
No more; no less.”
(A.A. Milne, E.H. Shepard)
LEST WE FORGET
What a mixture of emotions this last week, sadness of death and the hopefulness of having an assembly again. So scared of another election the two main parties have decided to cooperate. I don’t think it’s epic as the national media are claiming, I feel what were they playing at for the last three dreadful years. A lot of damage has been done within that time and it makes me angry. Forgive me for being cynical but I won’t be counting my chickens before they are hatched.
The shock news of Stephen Clements death in his 40s brought hundreds of tributes from his friends and his following on radio, Q Radio and BBC, and all the charities he supported. We’ll miss that infectious smile. Sympathies to his wife and little children and his family.
At the other end of the age scale Betty Lowry passed away during the week at 99 years of age. Betty was women’s editor with the Belfast Telegraph for 20 years and she was a role model for many of us budding journalists. She was calm and impressive and when I was working with the Ulster Actors Company in the Arts Theatre it was a pleasure to welcome her to review the productions, always truthful and constructive – not always enthusiastic! Her husband, Lt Col Bathoe Rainsford, was always with her, a devoted couple. The Belfast Telegraph in a tribute to Betty told how she worked as a reporter on the paper from 1956, having been told at interview by then editor Jack Sayers that she “would have to do all kinds of reporting, but you’ll not be sent to the courts or any all-male gatherings”. She retired in the early 80s having covered all aspects of life, including ‘all-male gatherings’ and died peacefully on Christmas Eve.
And my heart goes out to Prince Harry. For me his mistake was not talking to the family first especially his grandmother who obviously adores him and must have felt a mixture of hurt and anger at his behaviour. She’s a wise woman and I’ve no doubt will try to sort this out with compassion for his feelings and duty to the family firm. He’s had a long hard road and of course he’s looking for peace of mind with his wife and son and I reckon he should be allowed that. Megan has just given him the support he needed to make a decision about his own life and theirs together. Sounds like he’s not giving up on his responsibilities in the UK so hopefully the whole sorry mess will be resolved to everyones satisfaction and we can get on with Brexit!!!
I went to see Little Women and despite most people falling over themselves with delight, I was disappointed as was my daughter. The technique of flipping back from present day to yesterday was confusing, the film was well on before the personalities established themselves except for Jo March played by Saoirse Ronan who was terrific. You need to know the story to keep up. Laurie stayed a teenager throughout and Marmee was pathetic. Only my opinion of course, it looked good but I wasn’t totally involved.
I would love all the young people who saw this could take time to have a look at the 1949 version with Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh and June Allyson as Jo. With Mary Astor as a strong Marmee and Rossano Brazzi as professor Brah and Peter Lawford as Laurie. These were the greats of their day and although the setting is mostly in a sound lot rather than the lavish outdoor scenes in the 2019 version. The 1994 film was starred Susan Sarandon was the mother and Winona Ryder was Jo and our own Gabriel Byrne was an older Professor Baer as in the book, but for me anyway the current version lacks something special that shone out from the original.
All the people I write about are important to me and leave a lasting impression like the three I returned to last week to catchup on 2019
Indeed I was lucky to catch Kym Lennon. She was at George Best airport waiting to be called for her flight to Amsterdam and onwards to Singapore. There she was boarding a cruise liner for a couple of weeks before flying from Singapore to Sydney Australia for a few days before joining another cruise ship to ‘do’ the west coast then back to Brisbane for a short holiday with friends before flying to Dublin via Doha airport Qatar. Quite an undertaking for anyone but hats off to Kym who describers herself as a solo traveller. Sitting in George Best with her daughter Alex and her friend Toby, Kym was obviously excited and not one bit scared despite the fact that she is severely disabled and is travelling all these hundreds of miles, on her own, in a wheelchair.
“Although some airlines still won’t take a disabled passenger on their own there have been improvements, it used to be my bionic wheelchair was taken away from me to go into the hold and I had to use their chair which wasn’t comfortable or safe but now I can use mine until I get into the plane.”
Kym, 52, was born able bodied but in 1998 she suffered a brain tumour which she survived against all expectation however she can’t walk, has double vision that effects her balance and has been receiving intensive speech therapy yet nothing seems to daunt this woman who rates her life eight out of ten. She’s an impressive campaigner who started the charity Disability Matters North Down and Ards and in 2019 fought and won her crusade for an interactive beach which opened in Groomsport last autumn. “I’m here to show the public how successful life can be in a wheelchair. I’m an optimist, when it comes to the glass, I’m a half full type of girl. Once you figure out why you’re here, figure out your purpose in life, just get on and do it.” Bon Voyage Kym.
A West Belfast Mum
Bridie McLean lives off the Springfield Road and I loved her from the moment I walked through her garden gate early last year. Huge smile and a big hug of welcome, a woman who has been a foster carer to 20 children but 10 years ago she drew two teenage boys into her family of four children.
“I was feeling a bit down one Friday morning and I made a prayer to St. Martha for strength and an hour later the phone rang. Could I take a little boy for the weekend. Absolutely yes. I began to prepare when shortly after that the phone rang again, could I take his brother as well – just for the weekend. They came and they stayed, I call them my angels.”
Christmas Eve is always a celebration. This Christmas from Sunday to Tuesday 34 friends and relatives, children and grandchildren partied in her home, rock buns and chicken and beef pies aplenty. I even got the recipes when we talked last week, fry the cubed feef, Oxo cube, HP sauce, Bisto, onion in the pot, a little water and tip the meat in. Make your own pastry with self-rising flour and soft Stork margarine and an egg beaten with a little milk to brush on top. It’s not the ingredients, it’s the love that goes into that dish that makes the difference.
Bridie will have her challenges in 2020 but she will do as she always does and pray, “God send me help, tell me what to do.”
This warm and cosy woman has an open door policy, there’s always chat and laughter just the right atmosphere for children and adults alike. She’s a West Belfast mummy, baking and cooking, lifting and laying with time and room in her heart for everyone.
More Please Sir!
Esler Burke impressed hundreds of people last February when the curtain went up on his musical ‘Twisted’. It’s quite a story. A musician of 72 years of age, front man for the band Springfield and a man with an imagination. When he saw the film in the Regal cinema in Larne, he was instantly a fan of ‘Oliver’ starring Ron Moody as Fagan with music by Lionel Bart. “I was hooked!” He read the Dickens novel and became fascinated with Oliver’s half brother Edward. “I got the spark from the Dickens book and over five years I developed the character and his relationships.”
Esler called in top professionals to help him, worked with the Theatre at the Mill and their enthusiastic youth group plus well known amateurs in the lead parts and spent his life’s savings to realise his dream. It was a smash hit, six shows with 90% ticket sales, 320 people at the matinee where there would usually be around 180, the most successful show ever in the Mill and the future looked bright. Unfortunately as he told me, the expected followup wasn’t realised.
“I sent letters to amateur companies all over Northern Ireland and not one of them replied. I was very disappointed and annoyed but I haven’t given up hope. I have a number of leads in England with a few producers there showing an interest.” It’s a shame that the companies he approached didn’t have the decency to contact him even to say they weren’t interested. However, he takes comfort in the fact that Les Miserables lay dormant for years before it became a huge hit. But he hasn’t been idle over the last few months and is now working on a show for schools, a tale of a garden, two cats and their prickly friends. A good message for the New Year – if you don’t at first succeed, try, try, try again!
More about Twisted at www.twisted-musical.com
