Day 2, #OfGodAndMe Moving towards adult life...
we continue with departure from London to Hampshire, 1970...
...if you really want, you can reach notes on some images with @get_altText as a reply to that tweet...
we continue with departure from London to Hampshire, 1970...
...if you really want, you can reach notes on some images with @get_altText as a reply to that tweet...
9.4th sister stayed with neighbours to finish her O Levels, so I was an only child, in a new town. A 17 mile Sponsored Walk for Oxfam showed me the geography, but I never quite took to Bournemouth. The stammer made reading round the class torture at times, altho’ I loved to read.
10.Another summer camp in Wales. But now news came that my Dad had suddenly died. For sound seeming reasons I was left at camp & not brought home 4 his funeral; but it was not a good call, & wouldn’t happen now. When I came home I felt I couldn’t talk of him as it upset my Mum. 
11. We all wanted her to make the long planned parental visit to NZ that Autumn. My trial of boarding at 12 was not a success: I resisted bullying culture, and was convinced my Mum would also die. Happily my 17 y/old sister was entrusted with my care, and we were fine together.
12. I’d been 2 Essex CCC nets, and got in with Hampshire, where I met a Cambridge Archaeology student. His tales of playing 7/10 at college fired my imagination, & I took more interest in schoolwork. I came across Thomas Merton; we had bereavement & Bournemouth in common!
13.I loved French, though we had 2 school years without a real French teacher.But I discovered Camus, who truly made me think, & grappled with my deep-seated faith, & suspicion of the institutional church. A memorable school trip 2 Greece through Europe showed me a wider world.
14.I got involved with Amnesty International, writing letters 4 prisoners. Justice & Peace were vital to my faith, and I was at some level aware of a priest, who shared my name, who had been murdered in Chile. Tibet also was a cause that roused me. It was time to move on to Uni.
15.I applied 4 English & a 7thTerm came together. There was 2 of us, & a dynamic young teacher arrived 2 spur us. For 9 months I became a CSV (domestic VSO) at a residential school with maladjusted kids from Glasgow. It took a week 4 both sides 2 understand what we were saying.
16. Castlecraig had wonderful staff.Charismatic Catholic houseparents; devout @ChurchScotland teacher; single trad lady Catholic teacher, Mozart fan. @ Easter, Hamish took me on an Odyssey roadtrip 2 far West, heartland of the WeeFrees, where I didn’t advertise being Catholic
17. Somehow I didn’t get involved in Renewal via Mary & John. But Mary told me never to forget the kids I was working with, and I haven’t. She had been prayed through a brain tumour. I knew the kids accepted me when they tied me to the flagpole & soaked me on my birthday.
Tomorrow, the Year of 3 Popes ends with a new beginning...university. Some special kids, & possibly my biggest influencer, who did it by saying nothing at all... #OfGodAndMe
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
