Confessions of a Free Range Prolapsed Catholic

I was raised in a Catholic family. I had five siblings. In the 50’s that was a sort of midrange size for a catholic family. Four of my five siblings entered religious life or the priesthood. That made us sort of a celebrity catholic family. So the following is a chronology of my experience of…

I have many memories of 9/11 over a number of years. Every year on that date since 2007, I am reminded of the death of my friend’s sister, and the beginning of a reign of total terror and agony for my family, my mother and my brother. I am reminded of the death, from brain…

Its a very early wake up for me most days and most days I roll over and go to sleep. But today is different. I am up early and already he has gone to work. I’ve missed him! Its the thirty sixth anniversary of his birth today! It takes me back to the first moment…

Once upon a time, the time was 1966, my best friend Glenys and I were floating on our backs, beyond the breakers at Nobbys Beach. The regular swell and dip of the water lulled us as we wallowed in the peace of it all. We were in year 10, I was 15. She was going…

“One day I shall burst my bud of calm and blossom into hysteria.”. Christopher Fry is responsible for this piece of wisdom. Foreboding ? Perhaps. Insightful? Perhaps, Educative? Completely. I know it to be true because it happened to me! In 202I I celebrated the 71st anniversary of my birth. In February I experienced an…

(The beauty and burden of memory – Sarah Ferguson 7.30 report) There is one experience many of my generation had that I did not. I never had to hold my breath in the hope that one of my four brothers might come back safely from war. My Dad was born in 1914. He had a…

On September 11th 2001. the world was terrified. The terror in New York. That was the day we collected our plane tickets to fly to England to visit our daughter. The following day America started to bomb Afghanistan. We did not cancel our trip. It was wonderful and we were safe. On September 11th 2007…

I have recently been reminded of the magnificence of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches written by Edward Elgar for the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902. As a music teacher, listening to them was compulsory for elective music classes. Google tells me that the title comes from Shakespeare’s Othello, and the line “Pride, pomp…

The title of this contribution was my mantra for the last thirty years of working as a teacher. Today, five years post retirement it has come screaming back into my psyche as a result of a phone call to the Chemist. With every other thing that is going on, however, the prospect of my bud…