I noticed recently on the VirginMoneyGiving site, where charity sponsorship money linked to our walk is raised, that my friend Paula has made quite a big donation to the charities we are supporting in Tanzania and Canterbury.
If you had said to me a couple of years ago that I would have a friend, who was a Roman Catholic nun, who was supporting me in climbing up the highest free-standing mountain in the world, I would have said that you were fantasizing! Every part of that sentence would have seemed quite bizarre – but it is the reality.
When I stopped working as a solicitor at the end of October 2013, the next day I started as a volunteer at Catching Lives, the local charity which works with the homeless in Canterbury. I had looked at their website, and really liked that their aim is to work with people to get them back into work and accommodation – not just to put on a sticking plaster by giving them food and somewhere to sleep for a night. I also thought it was great that they suggest that all volunteers should spend three months working in the kitchen before moving into any other volunteering roles with the charity, so that both the volunteer and the charity can be sure they are comfortable with each other. Their centre is only ten minutes walk from home, so I went round to have a look. I said that I could be free every Wednesday to come in. I was told there was a “nun of about 80” in charge of the kitchen on Wednesdays (not quite true!!!) and that it might be better if I came in on Thursdays, when there were a lively bunch of recent retirees in the kitchen. However, Wednesday was the only day I could be sure of having free – no Pilates, patchwork, nor U3A classes – and it wouldn’t interfere with any weekend plans!
I remember nuns living round the corner, when I was a child in Hawick. They were very forbidding people, dressed in black, very like those in “The Sound of Music”. I was quite terrified of them. However, my experience in the kitchen has been so different from anything I might have expected – and 15 months on, I am still there every Wednesday, because I love it. There are four of us regulars, who come every Wednesday, and we always find something to laugh about. Sometimes there are also students and other volunteers.
Paula turns out to be a highly intelligent right-minded, (although left wing) feminist – who will not be 80 for a few years yet! We have had discussions in the kitchen about everything under the sun, including Aids, divorce, and even frequency of sexual intercourse, and Paula has participated in a matter of fact way without showing any signs of embarrassment or shock. She welcomes me in the kitchen with a hug and I am proud to count her as my friend. She knows I am an atheist. I know she believes there is a God. We have respect for each other.