Last week I attended a
commemorative service to mark the second anniversary of the Manchester Arena
attack. The service was held in St Anne’s church; an Anglican church that was
first dedicated in 1712. It is located in St Anne’s Square, which in the
immediate aftermath of the attack provided a place that people from all faith,
backgrounds and all parts of the North West could come together to show their solidarity, compassion
and hope in the face of such a dreadful event. 22 people lost their lives in the
attack and many more were injured, both physically and mentally. This year’s
service was more intimate; perhaps because the building was much smaller than Manchester
Cathedral, where the first commemorative service was held; perhaps because
those attending represented a more local and familiar group of people; and
perhaps because over the course of time new relationships and friendships had
been formed allowing for a more comfortable sense of being amongst so many
other families impacted by the attack.
The hymns and prayers, readings
and music created both a solemn atmosphere and yet also underpinned a sense of
hope and optimism for the future. It was a privilege to be part of the
remembrance service. In fact, it was a
week jam-packed with events that sparked memories. Facebook memories showed me
a message I had sent out last year at this time. The poppies in my garden had
just come into bloom, a fitting reminder that we wouldn’t ever forget those
impacted by the Arena attack.
I also heard of the sad death of
Judith Kerr. Her book, the ‘Tiger Who Came To Tea’ was a great favourite of many
children and mine were no exception and some of my grandchildren are now
beginning to discover it too. 51 years
after it was published it still has great appeal, and I even heard a rumour
that Channel 4 are making an adaptation of the book for Christmas – watch this
space.
And of course, it has been the
RHS Chelsea Flower Show week. I’m from the Alan Titchmarsh era of presenters,
and apart from Monty and Joe, the new ones leave me feeling a little old and
faded. That said I have absolutely loved and been inspired by the gardens this
year. The ‘Manchester Garden’ captured the zeitgeist perfectly – water (canals
and the industrial revolution) hexagonal stepping stones representing the
worker bee, so closely symbolic of Manchester, and of course the wonderful
curving representations of graphene and a glimpse into a future of exciting
possibilities.
The ‘CAMFED’ garden captured the
essence of Zimbabwe perfectly. I have not been to Zimbabwe, but I have been to
many countries in Africa and seeing the garden brought back so many wonderful
memories of the ingenuity of people overcoming obstacles to achieve good health
and wellbeing. It was a brilliant advertisement for the important work of
CAMFED and the work they do in supporting girls and women in the poorest rural communities
across sub-Saharan Africa. It is through this work that women are transforming
communities and are proving to be very effective #differencemakers.
My particular favourite garden
was the ‘Walkers Forgotten Quarry Garden’ – those who know me will know why
this might be the case. However, the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton’s ‘Back
to Nature Garden’ was said to be the most talked about garden at this year’s
show. It was lovely to see her children really enjoying the garden and I guess
in a very pressured world, such moments of freedom must have been very
precious. I liked Kate’s memory of walking through the bluebell woods as a
child with her grandmother. The great thing about her garden (designed with
Andree Davis and Adam White) is that it will be will be transplanted
(literally) to the Dewnans Centre, part of the Devon Partnership NHS Trust,
well at least the plants will be. The Dewnans Centre were the winners in a
national competition to rehouse the garden, which involved some 23 NHS trusts
nationally (I will have to find out next week if @WWL made an application).
What makes this an especially good
thing to discover this week is that the Dewnans Centre is a 60-bed medium
secure unit, which provides a service to support the recovery of some of the most
socially disenfranchised people who, in a secure unit, have very limited access
to natural habits. When I first came to Manchester in 1984 it was to the Gardener
Unit, the only NHS service offering forensic care to adolescents with mental
health issues. I went there as part of the commissioning nursing team. The experience
was the turning point in my life – moving me from being a goat-keeping, chicken-loving
nurse onto a pathway of nursing education and research (although chickens are
still an important part of my life). The enclosed gardens (whilst not as grand
as Kate's) were an important part of life on the unit – and also at one time,
we tried to keep a few hens in one of the gardens. Health and Safety issues made
this ultimately sadly impossible.
Finally, in a week of memory
joggers came the news from the online journal, the Rolling Stone. Readers of my
age might well remember the original newsprint version of this all things music,
media and beyond magazine (TBH the digital version is nothing like the radical
and of the moment paper version). In any event they reported last week that the
Rolling Stones returned the song writing rights for the 40th most
popular song of all time, ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ to Richard Ashcroft, lead
singer of The Verve. For the past 20 years, they have taken 100% of the royalties
for the song after a court case decided that the famous string riff in the song
was a sample taken from the Rolling Stones song ‘The Last Time’ without their permission.
In my lifetime, I have seen the Rolling Stones in concert six times and have
always enjoyed their concerts. At the last one Richard Ashcroft was the supporting
act and he was superb – so hats off to the Stones, who after 20 years have done
the right thing and booked out of the Memory Motel!
