Grinning Like a Cheshire Cat – by Sheila

Cheshire catI have been going around looking a bit like the Cheshire Cat lately, directly as a result of the Kili project. Three days running, I had lovely things happen.

On the first day a friend, a highly respected academic, who has written well researched books on diverse topics, mentioned in an email that she was enjoying our blog and thought I was a good writer! I was really chuffed that she would even read my stream of consciousness ramblings, let alone praise it.

On the second day, I received a real letter in the post from someone I did a PGCE with more years ago than I like to think about. She had read about our proposed Kili climb in the Kentish Gazette and sent me a truly zany letter explaining that she had not been in touch for years because her personal life had been completely subsumed by her demanding job – she was a brilliant headmistress in a school in a very deprived area. However she has just left work and was reclaiming her life and friends. We have since agreed to a walk and a pub lunch so we can catch up on the last few decades. Yippee – I feel truly blessed.

On the third day, a friend came up to me at the end of a Pilates class, saying she would like to give me a cheque for the charities we are supporting. I thanked her, but mentioned it would be worth 25% more if she could do it on line through our site and Gift Aid it. She said she could not manage to do that. I said that perhaps I could do it on my iPhone for her – so she pulled out her bank card, so we could try. When I asked her how much she wanted to give, she said £200! The Cheshire Cat smile was out big time at that: I had anticipated a tenner. And I did it: five minutes fiddling with my phone, and I had increased the money for the charities by £50. I was pleased to be able to tell her that the money gets sent to the charities at the end of every week, so already there might be one more client of Catching Lives with the prospect of finding a home and maybe a woman in Tanzania a step further forward towards a career as a guide. And many thanks to my honorary daughter, Katie Vermont, who adopted our family as her own many years ago, for giving me her old iPhone for Christmas a few years ago, having the patience to go with me to a shop to transfer it to me, and then sit with me to show me how to use it. I love you, Katie!