Death at our shoulder

Death seems to be having a feeding frenzy this year.  David Bowie, Caroline Aherne, Alan Rickman, Muhammad Ali, Prince, Victoria Lane, Ronnie Corbett, Paul Daniels and Terry Wogan to name some.  These are the people and names I grew up with.  My mum loved Terry Wogan and he was the breakfast time voice, after Jimmy … Read more

Life Well Lived

What is a life well lived?

I went to a funeral this week.

It was a humanist funeral which celebrated all that Alan had been and all that he had done and all the ways in which he had touched people’s lives.  And as I sat there, I reflected on how well he had lived … Read more

Resignation Letter

I have resigned.  I wrote a resignation letter before Christmas.

It was accepted straight away.

It feels very scary and amazingly exciting.

I resigned so I can focus more on writing.

I wrote the letter to myself.

I have not resigned from teaching as I love working with A level students, they are fun, we … Read more

Paris

Paris.

I feel so ill qualified to speak.

I’m not there but I know people who are.  It could have been our sons, our daughters in that concert, that football stadium, those bars.  They were someone’s sons and daughters, someone’s, mums, dads, friends.  And so were the killers.

How much hate has there got to … Read more

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone- or how we don’t see the last time coming

We were packing up to leave from our Easter holiday and I noticed the kids talking about ‘next time…’.  So sure were they that there would be a ‘next time’ in that place…but will there be?

As we pulled out of the harbour with the yellow fishing nets behind us we had know idea that … Read more

Bereavement and Sadness at Christmas

Christmas is always mixed for me.

  • How was it for you?
  • How did you feel?

I love seeing the kids open their presents (we got it right this year – phew) and I like having time to see friends.

I also feel sad at Christmas because it isn’t in a semi-detached house in Kent with … Read more

My email address

julieleoni.com@gmail.com