I could grovel about not posting for so long, but I won’t. I’ve been ill rather more than usual and I hate drivelling on about that, so I won’t. I’m still looking for work, and I could carp about that, but I won’t do that either.

I’ve started going to the gym again (there is a special deal for the unemployed) and that is making me feel better. It gives me some structure to my week, and those old endomorphy wotsits seem to be doing me good. I’ve also been going to workshops and seminars for the unemployed in order to explore options re. employment/self employment. I’ve met some wonderful people, and I want to tell you about one of them.

I met Patricia Anne Lewis last Monday. She is a lady in her 40s. She has 10 children, by two men. Her first man died after they had been together for 12 1/2 years. At the age of 47, her mother got Alzheimers, and she died at the age of 51. Anne nursed her. Anne has 4 siblings, but none of them would help out, as they wanted to remember their mother “as she used to be”. Anne didn’t have that luxury, so she took the six kids she had at the time and moved in with her mother. She arranged the funeral and all when her mother died. Apparently, her mother was frequently lucid, and Anne said that the worst thing was that, during those moments, she would ask why her other children had abandoned her.

Anne is now living with an ex-biker called Mark. 5 of her kids have left home, and 5 still live with her and Mark. One of them is epileptic, and another has severe asthma. Due to looking after all her kids, Anne cannot work outside the home and so she lives on benefits. She takes a lot of stick for that.

Anne is a dumpy little woman with great hair and skin. She doesn’t wear a scrap of make-up and she wouldn’t know a stiletto if it sat on her face. She, however, is following her dream - with the support of Mark, who is apparently the size of a barn door and who tends to make people run away screaming when they see him in the street.

Anne has always written stories for her kids. Those kids now vary in age from 26 to 8, so all those stories cater for a wide age group. She illustrates them, too. Mark has given her the guts to try and get her work published, and at least one publisher is interested. She is way over the moon about this.

I hope that Anne is going to be the next JK Rowling. She bloody well deserves it.

She told me that she has got through life by forgetting the bad things, because she thinks that if you focus on them, more bad things will happen. She said to just think about good things in the future, and it will all be all right.

I thought that was a great idea, so I started the process on Monday afternoon, after I had met Anne.

On Tuesday I had a car accident.

On Wednesday I found a lump in my right breast.

Hell, we’re all different. Keep trying, right?

Filed under: Uncategorized by fishnetmama