Yesterday, my sister and I gave my mum a tape recorder. Yes, it’s like going back twenty, thirty years. The reason is that she has all these tapes that she wants to play again. She phoned last night sounding happy. Her old favourite Don Francisco was blaring in the background. When life is hard, or…

Please accept my apologies for this interruption to your normal blog based service. It’s time for a commercial break. I’ve been blogging here for 10 years, and I would like to keep going. As many of you know, I’ve been calling myself an author for the last few years too, and some of you have…

Sometimes, for a host of reasons, your world shrinks.

Last night when we were catching up on The Greatest Dancer, we saw a 98 year old step forward to tap dance her way into the hearts of the audience. She was frail and yet still able to dance. When the doors opened to confirm she’d been voted through, her face lit up spectacularly. I’ve…

Update, January 2020 from Ruth… I remembered this post from November 2013 last night, and thought it was as true today as it had been when I first wrote it seven years ago. So here it is, with a few careful edits… (First published, Wednesday 13th November 2013) Every evening, almost without fail, my husband…

The first time she encountered him, she barely noticed. The first time he spoke to her, she didn’t believe it. It took a whole year before she (uncertainly) decided to give hope a chance. Of course, there were many moments of doubt, but, through all the dark times, lonely weeks and hesitations, hope won out.…

Sitting here, I can see a card with one word, one name on it: ‘Immanuel’. Every weekend I let thoughts and ideas circle round my head, trying to find something to blog about. Something that will give you a wee bit of courage to carry on. Thinking back over this last year, I see many…

So, I want you to change these two men into Donegal cap wearing cronies. As they chat, it’s very possible one or both will suck their breath between their teeth, shake their head and say these two words: ‘that’s life’. It is the perfect response to bad news.  News such as, ‘She’s not long to…

I can reach people, see places and do things beyond my physical ability. On the days when it’s hard to get out of the car and walk into a coffee shop, I e-mail or text my friends and family. Mondays are the weekly reminder to myself and my readers that I am a writer. The…

Maybe it’s just me, but most of the time I operate on a ‘need to know’ basis. I skim, never study, articles about MS, I do terrible checks on my children for head lice, I look beneath the cobwebs in the corners of my living room. If I don’t see it, then it’s not there.…