Cherrypicked stories

Reggie Smith was another busy man. Contrary to popular belief, life on the streets is not one of idleness, it is imperative to be constantly on one's...

I was my mother's full-time carer during her final illness - from 16th October 2016 until 26th April 2017: the day she passed away. During that final spring, we took some day trips out to some local places of interest: Sandwich, Deal, Sheppey. Mum always enjoyed those trips. I think she knew she'd be seeing these places for the last time. Then, one day, we took the final trip. A few days afterwards, she began her final decline.

Image attribution: Wikimedia Commons Author: Blanford, William Thomas, 1888 License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Some of the following story was told to me as a true account over the weekend. As soon as I heard it, I thought that this was a natural story for my two hapless undertakers. Hope you enjoy it!

Dear diary Remembering. At this time of Samhain when thoughts go out to the loss of loved ones, I want to light candles and especially remember mum...

Harking back - looking forward

Image attribution: Wikimedia Commons Author: Blanford, William Thomas, 1888 License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Ange was perched between a gargoyle and a pigeon biding time. Time was a slippery thing and one had to leap into the slipstream of a moment with...

Image attribution: Wikimedia Commons Author: Blanford, William Thomas, 1888 License: CC BY-SA 3.0

I have to admit that lately I have been feeling slightly scratchy. After a rather obvious display of discomfort over the weekend my Servants took me...

I’d wrapped up for a winter walk with woolly hat and gloves even though it was just the beginning of May. Clydebank meteorological charts being...

6:00 PM BLUE THOUGHTS this will be the last night before streetlights dim altogether failing to catch zoning jeepneys going south before tired...

I heard the bell toll and wondered what it was like to die. An odd thought at the moment. I had only stepped into the kitchen to fetch my pills when...

They’re back The hidden help I woke with them inside Something’s wrong They talk among themselves And they are right, just Like the voice I heard...

Here comes Gravedigger again. Look at him. Positively drooling to break ground and put another notch on that old garrison belt of his. Singing under...

Lazily gazing Up at shape Shifting images Passing overhead, But for slight breeze they Float almost motionless, Feathery lion dancing on back Of...

In 2017, I took extended leave from work to care full-time for my mother. A sudden illness had left her unable to live independently, and it would have broken her heart - and mine - if she'd had to go into residential care. She was only expected to live for a few weeks, and she wanted to spend those weeks in her own home, with familiar things around her, and family and friends close by. In the end, she lived a further seven months. Afterwards, I wrote a long book about her life, focusing on those precious months. This excerpt comes from near the beginning, when mum's rushed into hospital. She's delirious from the illness. I'm called into a side room and given the news.

A classroom experience that still affects me, more than fifty years later.

Jeddos heard the rumours that she’d been and come back. “Why didn’t you say anything to me before?” His friend, Erngrod, told him – perhaps a little...