SEPTEMBER
1997 In
producing this Epilogue, it was not envisaged that immediately I had finished including
the quotation from the Corinthians, that I should learn of the tragedy, that millions of
peoples throughout the world would be mourning the loss of the People’s Princess,
Diana. The
news of the car accident in the River Seine underpass, in which she and Dodi Fayed were
both killed, as well as the driver, Henri Paul, was seen and heard on British television. This news was conveyed to me at 6 am on
Sunday 31st August, when Andrew phoned, “Dad, we are picking up Joy, who
will be landing at Heathrow Airport soon. We
will then call to see you, before taking Joy to her digs in Portsmouth. She will be very tired, travelling from Tanzania
overnight, after her 5 weeks
midwifery work, among the African natives.” At
the time I received this phone call in bed, I was half asleep, but came awake very quickly
when Andrew referred to the sad news of the Princess’s death. During
the week that followed, huge carpets of flowers were laid at Buckingham Palace gates, and
other palaces. Queues of mourners
waited eight hours to sign the many books of remembrance at Kensington Palace. It became apparent that the equivalent to a
State Funeral would have to be arranged, with the service taking place at Westminster
Abbey. This was not usually accorded to
non-royalty, but the Royal Family had been severely criticised for sticking to protocol. They had failed to allow the flag to fly half-mast
over Buckingham Palace, but had to agree to this being done on the day of the funeral. Not
since VE Day had so many people arrived in London from many parts of the world to bring
flowers and cards and pay homage to Diana’s fight for the under privileged. It was only after her death that the general
public were aware of the good that she had done for the humanitarian cause in so many
countries. She
used her star qualities wherever she could to raise money for charities and North America
could testify to this, where she was almost regarded as ‘their’ princess. She had visited Bosnia, where she met people
injured by land-mines, in her crusade to have a world-wide ban on their use. She had accompanied Mandela in South Africa,
visiting the sick, as she frequently did in Britain.
She was not afraid of holding hands with terminally ill patients with
Aids. Her charity work earned her the
title of the ‘People’s Princess’ having had her former title, ‘Her
Royal Highness’ removed after her divorce from Prince Charles. Whatever her title, she remained the mother
of Princes William and Harry, the elder of whom could be our future King. On
6th September, the day of her funeral, shops closed, all sports fixtures were
re-arranged, postal deliveries were cancelled and two minutes silence was observed during
the funeral service, which was transmitted live by loudspeaker, and on large television
screens to the millions of mourners throughout many lands. The
funeral route had to be extended to Kensington Palace to cater for the millions of
mourners lining the route, to watch the funeral cortege with Diana’s coffin being
borne on a gun carriage, flanked on either side by a bearer from the Welsh Guards. The
procession was joined by five men as it halted at the junction of Marlborough Road,
leading to St James’ Palace where Diana’ coffin, with her body, had lain for
five days on its return from Paris. Prince
Charles, the young princes, William and Harry, the Earl Spencer and Prince Philip, dressed
in mourning, walked closely abreast behind the gun carriage. The
wide diversity of invited guests who attended the Westminster funeral reflected her many
interests and callings. In addition to
the Royal Family and the Spencers’ friends, state, household, there were also around
thirty celebrities, including Pavarotti; also a similar number of repres-entatives of
organisations, such as the Red Cross. The
country came to a stand-still while the service was led by the Dean of Westminster, Dr
Wesley Carr, and the prayers said by the Primate Dr George Carey. In this very moving
service, two verses of poetry were read, one chosen and read by Diana’s sister, Lady
Jane Fellows - ‘Time’. Time is too short for those who wait, Too
swift for those who fear, Too
long for those who grieve, Too
short for those who rejoice, For
those who love, time is eternity. During
favourite hymns such as ‘The King of Love My Shepherd Is’ being sung, as well as
the whole of the service, the cameras showed members of the congregation weeping. I
was very suspicious that a member of the service organisers had read the last page of my
Epilogue, by including the same Bible quotation that I had given, as the Lesson read out
by Tony Blair, the Prime Minister who read I Corinthians 13, “Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels”, ending in, “And now abideth faith, hope, love,
these three; but the greatest is love.” The
tribute to Diana by the Earl Spencer contained criticism of the Royal Family and hoped
that Princes William and Harry would live normal lives and not be hind bound with protocol
by the Royal Family. He
particularly stressed that they should not be hounded by the press photographers, as was
Princess Diana, their mother, which was thought to be the cause of her fatal accident in
the tunnel. Another
well-known hymn was sung: Make
me a channel of your peace, Where
there is hatred, let me bring your love, Where
there is injury, your pardon, Lord, And
where there’s doubt, true faith in you. Diana,
Princess of Wales, For
her family, For
the Royal Family For
all who mourn For
the Princess’s life and work. For
ourselves. The
greatest impact on those both inside and outside Westminster Abbey was the rendering of
‘Candle in the Wind’ played on the piano and sung by Elton John. A large cheer was given by all those
present, and those outside, which continued for many minutes. The loudness of the cheers from the masses
gathered outside the Abbey, who heard the whole of the service from the outside
loudspeakers, caused a reverberation within the walls of the Abbey, setting off cheers
from the congregation. This, it was
claimed, had never occurred before at a funeral service in the Abbey. Here
are the words, a rewritten version of a 1974 pop hit, first written with Marilyn Monroe in
mind: Goodbye
England’s Rose, May
you ever grow in our hearts, You
were the grace that placed itself, where lives were torn apart, You
called out to our country, And
you whispered to those in pain, Now
you belong to heaven and the stars spell out your name. And
it seemed to me, you lived your life like a candle in the wind, Never
fading with the sunset when the rain set in. And
your footsteps will always fall here, On
England’s greenest hills, Your
candle burned out long before your legend ever will. Loveliness
we’ve lost, Empty
days without your smile, This
torch will always carry for a nation’s golden child. And
even though we try, the truth brings us to tears, All
our words cannot express, The
joy you brought us through the years. Goodbye
England’s Rose, From
a country lost without your soul, Who
will miss the wings of your compassion, More
than you’ll ever know. The
final hymn - Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer, was followed by the Primate giving the
Blessing. The service was concluded
with the Dean standing before the Catafalque, saying The Commendation. It
was at the west end of the Abbey that the cortege halted on leaving the Abbey for a
minute’s silence, observed by the nation.
The
television gave views of airports, railway stations, shops and public scenes of masses
along the main roads, all standing in silence and public services coming to a stop. Later, I learned that many parts of the
world, where Diana had visited, doing her humanitarian work, such as South Africa, where
the Abbey service had been transmitted live on television, the one minute’s silence
was observed; also, by those listening on the radio to the service. The
Spencers laid claim to her coffin by having her buried on the island site in grounds of
Althorp House, hidden by the high walls of the Spencers’ Estate. Before
the cortege could gain access through the main gates, it was necessary to remove flowers
strewn by many mourners, both local and from a distance.
The remoteness of this burial place reflected the contrasting views of
the Spencer family and the Royal Family, with regards to all aspects of the funeral
arrangements, the Spencers wishing to have a private funeral service. Because
of the huge public grief at her passing, where flowers were still being laid at the gates
of the royal palaces, a Princess Diana Foundation was set up for the public to show their
grief in a practical way, using the money to distribute amongst the many charities she had
been connected with. In a matter of
days, several million pounds had been donated, but the one biggest fund-raising was the
single record of Elton John singing ‘Candle in the Wind’. This disc broke all sale records of singles, with
a million being sold immediately they had been made available to the public. The tax-man even donated the VAT on these
sales to the Foundation fund, increasing the amount being collected daily, where the
demand for these records could not be satisfied.
It was claimed that individuals were trying to buy large quantities,
such as 100, and another 40, so that a restriction had to be placed on them per
individual. The
television viewing figures on the funeral day had broken the 39 million record of
Diana’s wedding with Prince Charles, being 40 million in this country, and an
estimated one billion around the world. The
Paris police continued for many weeks to try to identify the cause of the car crash in the
Seine tunnel, with the driver having been found to have double the safe amount of alcohol
in his blood-stream, and the Paparazzi photographers on motorbikes hounding the car. There was great concern that these photographers
would hound the two princes, William and Harry, and that measures would have to be taken
to restrict their invasion of the princes’ private lives. I
had to confess that shortly before this accident, whilst discussing Diana with some
friends, I had referred to her as ‘a witch’.
I believed that all this charity work was done to draw attention to
herself, to out-do Charles and the Royal Family.
I believed she should have given all her love to her husband, and done
this charity work as Queen Designate. However,
I now had to change my opinion in view of the vast amount of good for the sick and
under-privileged. It matters not if
this work satisfied her own ego, if the humanitarian cause was benefited. Within
a week, another world figure, who had given forty years to charity, had united in death
with Diana. Mother Theresa died of a
heart attack, aged 87. During
those years with Missionaries of Charity, Mother Theresa built a large movement with 3,000
members and tens of thousands of co-workers helping the poor and homeless in eighty
countries. It
was claimed that Diana had been influenced by Mother Theresa in February, 1992, when she
flew to Rome after the cancellation of a rendez-vous in Calcutta, due to the
missionary’s sickness. They met
again the following September, in Kilburn, at the London headquarters of Mother
Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity order. Diana
met her several more times, and sought support during the break-up of her marriage. The nun paid tribute to Diana’s work to
help the poor immediately after the Princess’s death. During
Mother Theresa’s lifetime, she became a symbol for human compassion throughout the
world, and in 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ten years later, she was a runner-up in a popularity poll, next
to Margaret Thatcher. At her passing,
so close to Diana’s death, papers had headlines, ‘Two Dynamic Forces are United
in Death’. Fortunately,
there was yet another elderly lady, who had given most of her life to the humanitarian
cause in various parts of the world, still taking an active part. Here is an article I wrote about Sue
Ryder, under the heading, ‘Helping Others’ for the Dorset, Hants and Wilts
Spiritual Healers’ Association. Sue
Ryder served in the highly secret Special Operation Executive (SOE) during WW2,
co-ordinating the resistance in Nazi-occupied Europe. This
experience launched her after the war into relief work, among the sick, homeless and
destitute. A Foundation dedicated to
this cause was formed by Sue Ryder in 1953.
This developed into a huge relief organisation, operating
throughout the world, via Sue Ryder Homes, of which 22 out of a total of 70 are located in
Great Britain. Treatment is provided to
alleviate 17 different types of sickness, together with caring and nursing for those with
progressive disabilities. The
following words have been taken from the Charter of the Sue Ryder Foundation. “The
Foundation is a living Memorial to all those millions who gave their lives during two
World Wars in defence of human values, and to the countless others who are suffering and
dying today, as a result of persecution. Whatever
you do and wherever you pray, think of their supreme sacrifice. This
is an international Foundation, which is devoted to the relief of suffering on the widest
scale. It seeks to render personal
services to those in need and to give affection to those involved, regardless of age, race
or creed, as part of the Family of Man. The
work is a summons to seek out and face the reality of human suffering and to do something
about it. It is a call to deny
ourselves, and to give ourselves to those who have need of us, whatever they may be. It
is a challenge to all of us. “For
the cause that lacks assistance, For
the wrong that needs resistance, For
the future in the distance And
all the good that I can do.”
George Linnaeus Banks To
fund these homes, the Sue Ryder Foundation depend largely on income derived from Sue
Ryder’s shops supported by volunteers. Further
income is sought from varied support groups, particularly throughout the week during each
November. There is a small
candle, the Sue Ryder Light and Hope. This
is a small candle, which friends can buy for a few pence and display in their windows as a
sign of their support. The following
are some of the ways the Sue Ryder Foundation seeks your support at both local and
national level. By
prayer and asking others to pray By
joining or starting a local Support Group By
helping at your local Sue Ryder shop By
donating items to the shops for sale By
distributing the Light of Hope By
joining a Speakers Panel By
a Legacy Head
Quarters The
Sue Ryder Foundation Cavendish,
Sudbury, Suffolk CO10
8AY It
was fitting that Mother Theresa, like Princess Diana, also received a State Funeral in
India, where she devoted most of her time to her sick and poor. It will be interesting to witness how the
countries of the world will pay their tributes to Sue Ryder, when she is called by the
Almighty to join the other Missionaries of Charity. The
three will have the satisfaction that their three foundations will continue to support the
sick and under-privileged wherever they have a presence. At
the time of concluding my ‘It Happened To Me’ account, I had not envisaged that
Harry’s fairly settled state would change at his Outram Road residence, so long as
Sylvia was the housekeeper. This
was not so, for he had started to plead to come home, most weekends. This, I did not feel, should happen,
particularly when he gave his reason that he other residents would be there at the
weekends. He had never complained
before about their presence. He told me
that a new resident had been temporarily placed with them.
Also, Sylvia was away on sick leave, with a dislocated arm and a Patsy
had taken her place. She was a kindly
lady, as indeed all whom the Portsmouth Housing Trust engaged were very well chosen for
tasks in their half-way homes. Although
he did not give either of these changes as reasons for his unsettled state, I felt one of
them could be a cause of it. Harry
drew my attention to the fact that he had never been away for eleven years, during the
whole of the time that he had been placed in the community at Outram Road. He told me that he refused to go to a
residence in the New Forest, with two other residents, because patients from St
James’ would be there. Then he
asked, “Dad, can I go with you to Bournemouth, on one of your weekend Breaks?” I was taken by surprise with this request,
in view of his paranoid condition. I
explained that two hundred people would be milling around, and that there was little
opportunity to eat on our own. I also
mentioned that the Midland Hotel coach we would be travelling on would be full, and that
we would not necessarily sit together. None
of these reasons put him off the idea, which if it took place, would be a break-through in
over-coming his phobia, which had plagued him all his life.
I immediately booked a single room for him and paid his deposit. I
regarded it as necessary to have a contact at Bournemouth, should Harry have one of his
turns, making it a reason to see Harry’s key worker at Catherington House, where St
James’ medical staff were based in Southsea, in support of patients housed in the
community. Whenever I asked Harry who
his medical back-up staff were, he generally replied, “I don’t want anything to
do with those people.” This only
applied since his Consultant, Dr Bale, had retired a year ago, after having charge of
Harry for around fifteen years, who had won Harry’s confidence in him. Although
I was unable to speak to his key worker on calling at his office, due to his commitments,
I did speak to him on the phone two days later.
This turned out to be a very useful conversation in that I was told
that Dr Caesar was his consultant and that his name was Roger Batterbury, with Pat his
understudy, both of whom had met Harry.
They were the ones I would have to contact, should I have
a problem with Harry in Bournemouth. I
also wrote to the Chaplain of St James’ to visit Harry, with the object to get Harry
to do another painting for his chapel, with the possibility that it would attract some
form of activity away from his residence.
The Chaplain, Alan Walker, who had bought the painting
‘Sunset Over the Nile’ had moved to another living at Slough. My
letter received immediate attention, for on 8th September, at 1230, I answered
the doorbell, where a small man wearing a dog collar asked if I was Harry’s father. He had visited Harry at 9.30 am that
morning, and had called to get his background.
I was able to show him several paintings of Harry that had
recently been framed to be hung in Outram Road, after a £70,000 improvement had been
carried out. His visit had been
organised by Catherington House, who had also sent Pat, with a friend from Mind to
befriend Harry. They called on
Harry the same morning as the Chaplin, Eric Massey, said goodbye to Harry. I
was delighted that the key-worker had taken prompt action following my visit to see him
and co-ordinating the Chaplain’s visit to see Harry.
The same evening of this visit to Harry, he phoned, telling me that
Deborah and himself would be visiting me next Sunday morning, at 10 am, and that his
friend from Mind would be taking him to the shops, during the week. He spoke in a cheerful mood and was
now looking forward to seeing his newly-found friend.
However, he did make it clear that he did not think he could make the
short break at the Midland Hotel, Bournemouth with me.
This I could well understand, and although it would have been a big
break-through, should it have taken place without a turn, it was too much to hope for. In
applying to the hotel for a return of the £20 deposit, on compassionate grounds, I
received an unexpected surprise when the Midland Hotel used the deposit to pay off the
balance of my hotel bill, which was almost twice the amount of the deposit. It is acts like this that keep your
faith in mankind, not often met in commercial enterprise. When
Sunday morning arrived, I was full of apprehension as regards the arrival of Harry’s
new lady friend, sent from Mind. Would
she arrive at all, and if so would she be an elderly, mothering, church-going sort of
person? A knock on the door at around
10 am soon provided the answer. On
the door-step standing were Harry, and what I thought was a young man, wearing light
trousers, T-shirt and a peaked cap inscribed with ‘Deborah’. Please
do come in, and make yourselves at home.”
Harry, putting on a rare grin, said, “This is my friend, Deborah,
who wished to meet you.” I asked Harry
to make some coffee for us, knowing he had a forté for this culinary act, which he could
display for my visitor. As
we strolled around the garden, I stared hard at Deborah, to make sure I was talking to a
lady, particularly when she came forth with, “I was swimming in Havant swimming baths
at 2.30 this morning, in a swimming gala, taking part in twelve events.” Now I took an even harder look at this
youngish person, who could have been 20, 30 or possibly 40-ish, for this was her age. She had burned herself out at work, and was
not allowed to work again. She was
attending Highbury College, taking a course in Sports Science and had Stuart Olesker for
the English subject at The Belmont, on Friday afternoons.
On hearing this, we were able to exchange our experiences on The Belmont
centre, and our common tutor, and to refer to Harry’s art tutoring, which he received
from Lin at the centre. I
showed several of Harry’s framed paintings to her, including the buffalo displayed in
the living room, and her comment was the same as that of Lin, his tutor,
“Brilliant”. While having
coffee, she revealed that she was good at meeting people, and had offered her services to
Mind. Harry was her first assignment
that had been arranged through Roger Batterbury, Harry’s key worker. Our
dinner consisted of tinned soup, which Harry had brought with him, followed by Apple
Banbury pie and custard. A taxi
arrived at midday, before I left to take sequence dancing lessons at the Bedhampton Social
Hall, this being an additional form of exercise venture. In
saying farewell to them, Deborah promised to take Harry to the art display at Spice
Island, Old Portsmouth, the following week. This
tom-boy of a young lady, whose life seemed devoted to sport, made it clear that she had
other qualities, such as humanitarianism. I
urged Harry to do another painting of an animal, since he had done another excellent
painting of a buffalo. I gave him
a cutting from a brochure, of a horse tilling the soil on a farm. I said to him, when I showed it to both of
them, “Here, paint this scene.” He
promptly replied, “No, I cannot do
it”. Deborah
immediately joined in, “Yes you can, you’ll do it for me, won’t you?” Harry did not answer, for he was quite sure of
what he felt, about what he is able to make into a good painting and what he is not. I was pleased that Deborah was already
getting Harry concentrating on his artistic ability and encouraging him by going to art
exhibitions. Could he also have found a
Fairy Princess to cheer his life a little, and get him mixing in the community? My
sequence ball-room dancing lessons at the Bedhampton Community Hall, given by Sally and
Nick, proved very instructive and a not-too-frightening experience. Both were very capable instructors and gave
short lessons to practice before starting the next movement. I
lacked a partner, but had Sally to partner me, after their demonstrations, which resulted
in me receiving personal tuition from the instructress.
In a very short time, I was able to follow her in several dances, such
as the ‘square tango’ the ‘rumba no. 1’, the ‘singy swing’,
followed by ball-room dances which I had enjoyed years ago.
All
this session brought back memories of happier times, when I recalled that the last dance I
had with Gladys had been at the Civil Service Club in Copnor. This was where Sally and Nick held their
weekly Saturday night dance, making my loss all the more poignant, after they invited me
to join their happy group of dancers. I
felt that I had inherited my father’s calling for music that he exhibited as an
organist. I enjoyed just sitting,
watching the dancers and listening to the old tunes, such as ‘Sally in our
Alley’, a favourite of Gracie Fields. This
also applied when attending church, and the old favourite hymns were sung, for I was quite
happy to sit and listen to them, such as “Abide with Me”. This feature, I suppose, must be typical of
my age-group, reaching the twilight of their life, with the music recalling some past
occasion. Being
very disheartened with the outdoor bowling season, owing to the poor state of the green,
and to some extent to the small cliques that had formed, I had decided to develop my
former pastime of dancing, which of course, would be dependant on the progress I made at
these Sunday afternoon sessions, and also subject to my dancing instructor’s
progress. Although
my bowling interest was on the wane, Jack Brown, President of the newly-formed during 1997
Emsworth Bowling Club, invited me to present the All-Change Drive Cup. Ernie Blake, a former bowls player,
now 88 years of age, still playing bridge at The Elms, was also invited. He had donated a set of woods, whilst I had
donated a set of movement drive cards. Ernie
MacDonald had run the drive each Friday afternoon and it had been a great success bringing
together the new members of their club. This
honour, of presenting the cup to the highest scorer of the season was a great boost to my
ego, having had a disappointing season, with my own bowling club. Jack asked me to say a few words during the
presentation of the cup, which I was happy to do, since Jack had kept me informed with the
progress of his club development since its inception.
Here
is my address to founder members, present at the end of the their drive, on a most
glorious sunny afternoon: “Mr
President and founder members of the Emsworth Bowling Club.
Ernie and I thank you for honouring us with this invitation to join
you on this presentation occasion. We
first of all congratulate you on the successful launch of the Emsworth Bowling Club during
1997. I
was privileged to sight the document several years ago, which Jack submitted to Havant
Borough Council, putting a case for the provision of a bowling facility to meet the needs
of Emsworth bowling fraternity. Later
Jack attracted several members from other local clubs, who were talented both in bowling
and management skills to form a steering committee to meet the Town Council
representatives. All you founder
members are now both witnesses and party to their endeavours, resulting in your club
having an excellent ‘esprit de corps’ to take your club well into the next
millennium. It
may sound amusing that a local bowler should go all the way to the banks of the Adriatic,
in the former Yugoslavia, to devise a drive using movement cards, to permit any variable
even number between 12 and 48 to take part without any pre-planning. I congratulate your club in adopting this drive as
a weekly Friday club event, and arranging this fine, sunny day for this presentation
ceremony. Over to you, Jack.” A
week later, I was taken aback when at the Emsworth Bridge Club, Patrick Keogh said to me,
“I did not know you were a local celebrity.”
I responded, anxious to learn of my fame, “Tell me more.” “I
was a bowler at the Emsworth Bowls club at the presentation event, where you gave your
excellent address.” This
unexpected comment from Patrick, which was another boost to my ego so that I found it hard
to hide my pride, so I added, “Yes, and my fees for being a guest speaker are very
high.” Patrick was relatively new
to the Emsworth Bridge Club, and during the evening I learned from him that he was a
Mancunian, which enabled us to exchange our early days in our common birth place. It was a charity bridge drive that we were
taking part in, which raised over £260 for the British Heart Foundation. During
September 1997, the period of the Wake of the Epilogue, yet another momentous event was
witnessed, not unlike the demise of the British Empire, when the handing back of Hong Kong
took place. The Labour Party had
promised in their election manifesto during 1997 that Wales and Scotland should hold a
referendum to allow the Welsh and Scottish people to
vote for their own assembly. The
Labour, having won the election and coming into power for the first time in 18 years, now
carried out their promise to hold these referendums.
To many British people, this action of devolution voting was akin to the
dismantling of the United Kingdom, if their assemblies removed their legislative powers
from Parliament. Many of the Welsh and
Scottish people had no desire to be made separate from their English counterparts in
government, as the referendums’ results were to indicated, by the high per cent who
did not vote. Those
who voted north of the border, voted 74.3% in favour of their own assembly, with almost
40% abstaining, whilst in Wales only a majority, 0.3% voted in favour, with only 50.1% of
their population voting. Practically
all of the Welsh border counties voting against having a separate assembly, which
reflected the need to retain Parliament as the single law-making power for Britain. This policy of devolution was, in my
opinion, like putting the clock back to the days when they last had their separate
assemblies, this, for Wales was 600 years ago. It
was thought by many that the purpose of having devolution in Labour’s manifesto was a
vote-winning exercise. The result
has yet to be proved, for the wisdom in introducing these assemblies and many English
people are already complaining about having these other clans across the borders taking
part in the affairs of England’s Parliament.
It is early days to forecast the effects of the seeds of devolution
sown by the Labour Government, but the British people have no doubt that their culture has
been enriched by the dialect of different countries and customs making up the British
Isles. It has been so sad to
know that a similar country, Yugoslavia, should have been torn apart by its differing
ethnic population. At
the end of the Wake behind the Epilogue, a month in time, and trailing very much like a
comet’s tail in the sky, a few more seeds have been sown. Who can foretell the outcome of Harry’s
friendship with Deborah from Mind? Who
can forecast where his Dad’s new sequence dancing interest will lead, or how he will
cope with the new word processor Amstrad 8256 with its visual display and printout, that
Joy turned down when Ted brought it along to the house, to give her to record her CV. It did not meet her requirements,
whereupon Ted offered me the unit and suggested I use it to reproduce ‘It Happened To
Me’. He refused to accept any
payment for the Amstrad word processor. All
he required from me was tuition in learning the ‘Club Precision Bridge System’
that Alan Wagg and myself used at Emsworth Bridge Club.
This was indeed a small price to pay for this generous gift, which I
have yet to tame, and Stuart Olesker suggested I adopt some time. There
is no more wake, as this typewriter ceases to record the life of Alan Rayment, only his
thoughts that he can offer as his tail-piece, taken from Paul Booth’s hymn. This
has been true in the past, the present and will be so for ever more, including a Fairy
Princess like Pat, if one is so lucky! Who
put the colour in the rainbow? Who
put the salt into the sea? Who
put the cold into the snowflake? Who
made you and me? Who
put the hump upon the camel? Who
put the neck on the giraffe? Who
put the tail upon the monkey? Who
made the hyena laugh? Who
made the whale and snails and quails? Who
made the hogs and dogs and frogs? Who
made the bats and rats and cats? Who
made everything? Who
put the gold into the sunshine? Who
put the sparkle in the stars? Who
put the silver in the moonlight? Who
made Earth and Mars? Who
put scent into the roses? Who
taught the honey bees to dance? Who
put the tree inside the acorn? It
surely can’t be chance! Who
made seas and leaves and trees? Who
made snow and winds that blow? Who
made streams and rivers flow? God
made all of these. |
Contents - Introduction - Home |
© Alan Rayment 1998
Last revised: February 04, 2001