WE HAVE SO MUCH TO BE GRATEFUL FOR

Before we left for Church today, I went out and took some photographs of the snowdrops just outside the conservatory - these are very special to us as they belonged to Mr. HCB’s mother who died almost 30 years ago, and Mr. HCB has looked after them lovingly ever since and of course, they are a lovely reminder of her.  

Then, and again before we left for Church, we had a lovely video chat with our son who lives in Vietnam, as it’s his birthday today. We had already tried to ring and speak, but as that failed, we had just sent a “singing message” for his birthday.  However, about ten minutes later, he called for a video chat and said he wanted to see and hear us singing in person, so of course, we obliged! 

It was still quite early when we left, because we had lots of groceries that we had collected yesterday, filling the boot and inside of our car, ready to go to the Community Fridge and to be used in the Bags of Hope.  Fortunately, we were not the first there, so I just asked some of the guys who were already there if they could please help us to off-load all the stuff, so that Mr. HCB didn’t have to lift the heavy bags and then he and Meg sorted it out in the storeroom.  It didn’t take too long, so I was then able to wander around and take a few photographs, including the lovely daffodils, and chat to other “early birds”!  

We were pleased to have Gaby from The Leprosy Mission with us today and the first question she asked of the children - and some grown ups if they wanted to answer - was “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  There were lots of answers - mainly from girls - the majority of whom said they wanted to be footballers - good for them!  This included the lovely young lady in the top row of my collage - and I do have her mother’s permission to use this shot of her.  

Her happy, smiling face, contrasts with the faces of the others in my collage.  The middle shot shows someone who has been given “the promise of being made new”, possibly because she is hoping to have treatment for leprosy.  

Leprosy is a chronic bacterial infection that affects the skin, nerves, eyes and lining of the nose and is spread through droplets from the nose and mouth of someone who has untreated leprosy.  I must admit I have often wondered if leprosy is contagious, but apparently, it does NOT spread through casual contact, but you usually need to have close, long-term contact with someone who has leprosy to catch it, BUT apparently, a patient stops transmitting the disease as soon as they start treatment.  

I guess for most of us who have been to Sunday School or Church, we have heard about this disease and the story of how Jesus healed the ten lepers - in fact, nowadays, the word “leper” is offensive to people affected by the disease - and perhaps we even assume that it is no longer a dreadful disease - but we would be wrong.  According to the Leprosy Mission website, it is still a 21st century disease, devastating people’s lives.  

If you want to hear Anjali’s story, then do click on this Link - and scroll down the page - it was very moving, and as a mother myself, I was thinking about how upset Anjali’s parents, and in particular, her Mother must have felt, knowing that her daughter was ostracised within their community, and, of course, they would be too, because their daughter had leprosy. 

Then Gaby told us about Peter, one of their staff, who last year met a lady named Bumi Suta;  when he put his arm round her to comfort her, she told him it was the first hug she had received since she was a child.  How upsetting and traumatic is that?  When asked what her hopes and dreams were for her life, she said she dreamed of owning a new sari, so when he re-visited Odisha, in India, a couple of weeks ago, he took her one.  I can imagine there would have been many tears - what a wonderful gesture. 

There is much more information on the Leprosy Mission website, and hopefully, with the help of donations to the Leprosy Mission, much can be done to help those with the disease and it can be cured.   

I do apologise for not commenting yesterday, but thank you all for your kind comments - I’m hoping that once I have seen our GP, which sadly won’t be until mid-March, I will find out why I feel so tired all the time - mind you although we saw the sunshine for a while yesterday, today is back to being dull, dreary and rainy, and that doesn’t help!  

Hope you all have a great week.  M xx