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A perfect Christmas is centred round the birth of a baby;
for this family, Christmas came at the end of September with the birth of
Suzanne & Andy’s first child, Rebecca Elizabeth. Suzanne & Andy are
proving themselves to be wonderful parents and we are all very proud of
them. Their little miss – who weighed in at a mere 9 lb. 7 oz. (!!) and who,
thank God, appears to be well in body and mind – reflects their loving care.
Rebecca is a great ‘talker’, and a people watcher, and in just 3 months she has
won many hearts. Grandma and Grandad Woodie are fully paid-up members
of the fan club, and delight in every opportunity to be distracted. This letter, dear readers, has already exceeded this afternoon’s editorial deadline….
I had an important visitor! Should you wish to make the young lady’s
acquaintance, her doting grandparents would welcome a visit from you and
an audience can be arranged.
From our youngest, I move to the Geriatric department. Granny Woodhurst seems to be going through a purple patch at the moment, sometimes her world is very confused and she is unable to remember much. Granny has regular respite stays in one of the Local Authority residential homes, where the staff seem to be dedicated and kind. In general her health, in particular the effects of osteoporosis, is deteriorating. Earlier in the year she spent several weeks in St.Georges Hospital, having fractured a vertebrae as the result of a fall. Alan continues to visit his Mum daily and arranges for all her physical needs to be met. The time is surely coming when we will have to make arrangements for Granny to move into a Nursing home permanently.
Granpa Greig is showing signs that his health is deteriorating too; he is greatly troubled with pain and is still reluctant to take stronger doses of analgesics – he is desperate to maintain his independence. He has just had a ten-day stay in hospital, thankfully he has managed to get home in time to celebrate Christmas. Dad is still living in his own home in Ashleigh Gardens, a mile away from us, although he is very conscious that we may have to reconsider his domestic arrangements if his health gives great concern.
Nicola continues to teach at Oglethorpe School, after several years as the reception teacher she’s moved up to take the older children in year 2. Earlier in the year they moved from Saffron Walden to a very pleasant house in Kelvedon, Essex – a village Nicola got to know quite well when Granny and Grandad Woodie lived in nearby Coggeshall. Kelvedon is much closer to several of their friends, and their home is just a few minutes walk from Liane and Graham’s home. Graham was the best man at their wedding. I think that, all being well, Nicola and Angus would like to consider having a family fairly soon, so she may well be looking out for some supply teaching nearer to home. Although, judging by her efforts on her darling niece's bedroom walls, she might well consider ‘nursery painting’ as a second string to her bow. Gus continues to work in Cambridge, quite a long daily journey for him to travel, but I think that he too is happy to be nearer to their friends. Recently Gus & Alan have negotiated over the purchase of a scanner – ostensibly this is to enable us to transfer text from a book onto the computer, but so far ‘we’ seem to have spent many hours creating enlarged photographs, and you, dear friends, know how ‘we’ love having our mug shots about the place.
Suzanne and Andy are not only busy with their little one, they seem to like their leisure time to be full. West Ham United still has its faithful supporters – and of course Uncle Dougie presented Suzanne with a W.H.U. baby T-shirt prior to the birth of Rebecca. Suzanne is undecided about her return to work as an accountant with Glaxo-Welcome in Dartford; the temptation of full-time motherhood is very real. She is continuing her district guiding activities and already her services are being used in one of the local brownie packs.
Douglas, who is still living with us, is working in the Bank of Canada. He’s never short of work but the time has come when he would be happier knowing that he has a permanent job – these short-term contracts seem to be very much the way of the present-day business world. Douglas has a lovely girlfriend, Gemma, who is very shy but who is gradually getting to know the family. Douglas seems to think that Gemma would like to accompany him, Alan and I next year when we hit the Southern Africa scene for 3 weeks ( to all those concerned, this is the advance warning!)
For Ann 1998 has been dynamic. Finally in February I began full-time work at Little Haven Children’s Hospice, near Rayleigh. It’s book writing material, working with very special people and in very privileged circumstances. In September, after 3 years training at Westminster College, Cambridge and Bishop Woodford House in Ely, I qualified as a Lay Preacher. At the onset of training it could not be anticipated that August would also see the departure of our new ministers – Liz was appointed as the National Youth Officer at the Yardley Hastings Centre – and this has obviously meant that some of us have been very busy. Now the burning question is, do I go on to do another 4 years training? – watch this space in 1999! But how do you top being a Grandma – quite simply you don’t, those who have experienced it know how special it is and, for those who have yet to be given the honour, it’s worth the wait.
Alan continues his part-time lecturing, but the end is in sight; a new syllabus is being validated next September and that will be just too much like hard work! However, the Sunday School will keep me busy for a long time. Apart from being Director, I am planning the implementation of our Bahá’í National Curriculum for all classes. In April I was given a computer with Windows 95, so since then have been able to use the colour printer (a present in ’97, but would not work with the old computer!) to great effect, especially for the younger children. I will, of course, never be too busy to help with Rebecca, & I echo everything Ann has already said in the first paragraph.
1998 has seen changes in other members of the family too. Sand & Sue and Alex had to face a crisis in Sandy’s health. A melanoma on his back turned out to be suspicious, and resulted in him having an area of skin the size of a dinner plate and ¾” deep removed in St.Thomas’ Hospital. He’s made a full recovery, for which we are all most thankful. Perhaps this prompted his decision to take retirement from Glaxo-Welcome head office in August; needless to say he’s working again, but supposedly part-time.
Lydia and Warrick have had a bumper year. Rachel & Kim Pomares were married in April and now live near Calgary in Canada, where Kim intends to go to University. In June Simon set off for Scotland, where he is fulfilling a 2 year mission for the Mormon Church. He is engaged to be married, his fiancée Marika is a lovely girl, at present at Bristol University. July saw the family moving from the Bristol area to Bolton in Lancashire – this might be good news for our Northern friends, we are likely to be up to see you in 1999. John achieved some good results in his GCSEs and is now established in a Bolton Sixth Form, more importantly he is within easy distance of Manchester United F.C. and the Raebock Stadium where Bolton play. And in November Daniel and Debbie were married. Daniel is still at Loughborough University, and Debbie is an infant teacher.
So you can see that as a family, great and small, we’ve had a full year, a happy year and a wonderfully fulfilling year. We look forward to seeing many of you next year.
This comes with our very special love for a Happy Christmas, and our best wishes for the New Year.
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