THE CORNER 4 WOMEN

Sunday 28 April 2024

HEAVEN'S PLAYGROUND by Joanne Boyle

"HEAVEN'S PLAYGROUND"
by Joanne Boyle

Here we swing on stars,

and angels are our friends.

The sky becomes our forest

where adventures never end.

Robins bring you messages,

from us to down below.

Clouds turn into aeroplanes,

and take us where we want to go.

We love to play hide and seek,

with the moon and sun.

Little birds are tweeting

and joining in the fun.

Orbs are all around us,

whispering in our ears,

reminding us we are loved,

whilst you are shedding tears.

We have real Christmas trees,

the baubles are lost balls.

The Angel on the top

answers all your calls.

All the animals play together.

There are no cat and mouse.

The sky is heavens playground

and heaven is our house.

******

Joanne Boyle Heartfelt

art by Steffi Krenzek

Brought to you by https://thecorner4women.com together with our sister website http://www.nicheebookcollections.com and our growing e-book library available FREE, through our Newsletter sign up page here:-

https://tc4women.nicheebookcollections.com/NEWSLETTER-EBOOK-LIBRARY-SIGNUP.html We now have over 1700 e-books on our library shelves for your reading pleasure, so do come along and check us out.

More articles by Su DeNyme (our resident writer) & John A Elliott are available here: https://www.nicheebookcollections.com/TC4W/ARTICLES.html

DEDICATED TO A WOMAN OF COURAGE BARBARA HARMER

"DEDICATED TO A WOMAN OF COURAGE BARBARA HARMER"

compiled by Su DeNyme & John A Elliott
(original author unknown)

Barbara Harmer left school at the age of 15 without any qualification to work as a hairdresser.

After five years of doing people's hair, she applied to become a trainee air traffic controller at London Gatwick Airport.

While working at Gatwick, she also decided to study for her A levels with the aim of studying law.

For this reason , her A levels subjects were Geography, English Law, Constitutional Law.

But she later changed her mind , and started taking flying lessons after obtaining a £10,000 bank loan.

After obtaining her private pilot licence, she embarked on a 2 year distance learning course for her commercial pilot licence which she secured in 1982.

Even after obtaining it , her tenacity to succeed was put to a stern test once again, when she was rejected by potential employers. Her 100 applications for a pilot job were all rejected.

In 1984, after two years of tarmacking, she got her first pilot job in a small commuter airline, and within that same year lady luck came calling when she joined British Caledonian Airlines.

Things became even more better for her three years later in 1987, when British Caledonian Airlines merged with British Airways.

She kept on soaring and after four years flying British Airways' DC-10 plane , she was selected to train as Concorde pilot, becoming the first woman qualified to fly the supersonic plane.

By the time Concorde was withdrawn from service in October 2003, Harmer had served 10 years as a pilot flying regular scheduled services.

After Concorde she converted to flying Boeing 777 Jumbo jet, until 2009 when retired voluntarily to pursue other things. Her aim was to sail in her yacht across the Atlantic in 2013, something she had started preparing for.

But unknown to her, she had developed ovarian cancer which was slowly eating her life away. By the time it was diagnosed, she only had slightly more than a year live.

Captain Harmer, who never had children, died in 2011 at the age of 57 leaving behind her husband of 27 years. Her ashes were flown high and scattered over the sea near her home.

She started low in life, climbed and soared. Her legacy is an inspiration to women and to youngsters everywhere. Through her pragmatic, can-do attitude, she achieved success in a male-dominated industry.

#TeamAirline

Brought to you by https://thecorner4women.com together with our sister website https://www.nicheebookcollections.com and our growing e-book library available FREE, through our Newsletter sign up page here:-

https://tc4women.nicheebookcollections.com/NEWSLETTER-EBOOK-LIBRARY-SIGNUP.html We now have over 1700 e-books on our library shelves for your reading pleasure, so do come along and check us out.

More articles by Su DeNyme (our resident writer) & John A Elliott our founder, are available here:
https://www.nicheebookcollections.com/TC4W/ARTICLES.html

Friday 26 April 2024

LIVING by Becky Hemsley

"LIVING"
by Becky Hemsley

Life in its essence is breaths that we take

Our very next breath is just seconds away

And breathing ensures we survive, we exist

But being alive is a lot more than this

It's climbing a mountain then looking back down

To see where you started and where you are now

It's loving the view that you see from up there

With the earth at your feet and the wind in your hair

It’s meeting with friends to catch up over tea

And laughing until you forget how to breathe

It’s dancing all night ‘til your feet wind up sore

And singing along ‘til your throat feels raw

It’s walking the beach and it's watching the tide

It’s finding a shell to hear oceans inside

It's flying ‘til you can see clouds from above

It's counting the stars and it's falling in love

It's watching the sun rise and watching it set

It’s gathering moments you'll never forget

The moments that teeter and flutter between

A world full of wonder and one of routine

So breathe in and out - it'll keep you alive

But know that you're here to do more than survive

You’re here to let music dance on through your veins

To climb to the top of the mountain again

To see yourself fly and to feel your heart leap

The world is a show and you’ve got front row seats

So in the next seconds, when you breathe on in

Remember the wonder of life that’s within

‘Cause taking a breath keeps you living for sure

But the breath taking moments?

They’re what we live for

******

Becky Hemsley 2023

Beautiful artwork by Anita Zotkina Art

This one is called "Living" and can be found in my fourth collection, Letters from Life: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHL9MZC1...

https://tc4women.nicheebookcollections.com/NEWSLETTER-EBOOK-LIBRARY-SIGNUP.html We now have over 1700 e-books on our library shelves for your reading pleasure, so do come along and check us out.

More articles by Su DeNyme (our resident writer) & John A Elliott our founder, are available here:
https://www.nicheebookcollections.com/TC4W/ARTICLES.html

WOVEN by Becky Hemsley

"WOVEN"
by Becky Hemsley

You're sewn into my habits,

Like the way I make my tea,

You’re stitched within my waking hours,

Threaded through my dreams

The fibres of you run through

Words and phrases that I say

And all my memories of you

Embroider every day

The jokes you told embellish days

That otherwise are bare

And all your little quirks make up

My life of patchwork squares

It’s you that knitted colour,

That tied knots and bonds so strong

That your beauty and your essence

Still remain now you are gone

See, we are like a tapestry

All stitched and woven tight

And I know you’re always with me

In the fabric of my life

So when I start to feel things

Tangled up inside my heart

I stop and realise love

Is an enduring work of art

*****

Becky Hemsley 2023

Beautiful artwork by Elizabeth Becker

'Woven' is from When I Am Gone https://a.co/d/eLpTudJ

https://tc4women.nicheebookcollections.com/NEWSLETTER-EBOOK-LIBRARY-SIGNUP.html We now have over 1700 e-books on our library shelves for your reading pleasure, so do come along and check us out.

More articles by Su DeNyme (our resident writer) & John A Elliott are available here: https://www.nicheebookcollections.com/TC4W/ARTICLES.html

A NEW CHAPTER by Becky Hemsley

"A NEW CHAPTER"
by Becky Hemsley

She asked him how he’d done it

How he’d built marshmallow towns

How he’d met a little poor boy

Who was destined for the crown

She asked him how he knew about

The language fairies speak

And how he’d caught a shooting star

That now was his to keep

She asked him how he’d swum

Right to the bottom of the sea

And how he’d seen a mountain cry

And heard the sunshine speak

She found it all a mystery

He breathed the air she breathed

But he breathed out tales of distant lands

And things she’d never seen

And she saw a world of wonder

When she looked up close at him

And when he spoke his words flowed

Like a poem on the wind

He told her that it hadn’t been

Some wings that helped him fly

And it hadn’t been a net he’d used

To catch things from the sky

It wasn’t maps that led him

To a chest of buried gold

And it hadn’t been a ship

That sailed him halfway round the world

It wasn’t bricks he’d used

To build a castle in the sky

For he told her he had lived

All of these things inside his mind

And he told her she could do it too

For reading’s all it took

And she’d open up her world

If she just opened up a book

*****

Becky Hemsley 2021

Fabulous artwork by Lisa Aisato

'A New Chapter' is from my first collection:

https://a.co/d/4cOFvD5

https://tc4women.nicheebookcollections.com/NEWSLETTER-EBOOK-LIBRARY-SIGNUP.html We now have over 1700 e-books on our library shelves for your reading pleasure, so do come along and check us out.

More articles by Su DeNyme (our resident writer) & John A Elliott are available here: https://www.nicheebookcollections.com/TC4W/ARTICLES.html

TWO WOMEN ON A TRAIN

"TWO WOMEN ON A TRAIN" (author Unknown)

Two middle-aged women sat next to each other on a train. One was in a very good mood, but the other was sad and depressed. The cheerful woman who was having fun reading a book, started laughing as she read something amusing.

Meanwhile, the sad woman became filled with envy seeing how cheerful the other woman was. She said to her.

"You seem to be having such a great time... How I wish I could be happy as you are. But sadly, life isn't fair to everyone"

The cheerful woman closed her book and spoke very gently.

"I'm terribly sorry for what you're going through right now. If you need to talk about it, I'm here for you"

At that moment, the sad woman heaved a sigh, then opened up to her.

"I have a child with a disability. It's so difficult to deal with the feelings of shame, guilt, hopelessness and depression. I wish I could change everything. It just hurts a lot"

When the cheerful woman saw that the sad woman had started crying, she consoled her.

"This must be so hard for you. But it always helps to look on the bright side of life. It's a choice you'll never regret"

Then the sad woman said.

"Unless you are raising a child with a disability, you don't understand the pain I go through everyday. The pain of loosing all hopes and dreams you have for your child. You don't understand because you're such a lucky woman"

The cheerful woman became quiet afterwards. Shortly, she reached her destination and got off the train. A few moments after she had left, the sad woman noticed a piece of paper carefully placed beside her. She read it.

"From the cheerful lady seated next to you. I just want you to know that I have three disabled children, and I understand three times the pain you feel. The only difference between the two of us is that I have accepted my reality".

Many of us are still sad and depressed because we avoid facing facts and refuse to accept reality. We always want to change our current situation and in that way, we get consumed by negative emotions- such as; guilt, shame, bitterness, frustration, hopelessness, irritations, etc.

The truth is that, we can't change everything in our lives, no matter how hard we try. And the moment we realize that certain things will remain the way they are and should be accepted, we will be happy humans in the world. Learn to accept your own reality and see the big difference it would make in your life.

Thanks for reading

https://tc4women.nicheebookcollections.com/NEWSLETTER-EBOOK-LIBRARY-SIGNUP.html We now have over 1700 e-books on our library shelves for your reading pleasure, so do come along and check us out.

More articles by Su DeNyme (our resident writer) & John A Elliott are available here: https://www.nicheebookcollections.com/TC4W/ARTICLES.html

GETTING OLD AND FEELING LONELY

"GETTING OLD AND FEELING LONELY"
(author unknown)

"I am 82 years old, I have 4 children, 11 grandchildren, 2 great-grandchildren and a room of 12 square meters.

I no longer have a home or expensive things, but I have someone who will clean my room, prepare food and change my bedding, measure my blood pressure and weigh me.

I no longer have the laughter of my grandchildren, I don't see them growing, hugging and arguing. Some come to me every 15 days, some every three or four months, and some never.

I don't bake cakes, I don't dig up the garden. I still have hobbies and I like to read, but my eyes quickly hurt.

I don’t know how much longer, but I have to get used to this loneliness.

Here at home, I lead group work and help those who are worse than me as much as I can.

Until recently, I read aloud to an immobile woman in the room next to me, we used to sing together, but she died the other day. They say life is getting longer. Why?

When I’m alone, I can look at photos of my family and memories I brought from home. And that's all.

I hope that the next generations will understand that families are born to have a future (with children) and that they do not forget about the family even in old age."

https://tc4women.nicheebookcollections.com/NEWSLETTER-EBOOK-LIBRARY-SIGNUP.html We now have over 1700 e-books on our library shelves for your reading pleasure, so do come along and check us out.

More articles by Su DeNyme (our resident writer) & John A Elliott are available here: https://www.nicheebookcollections.com/TC4W/ARTICLES.html

LYING ABOUT MY AGE

"LYING ABOUT MY AGE"
(author unknown)

“You can look at this picture and see how I could lie about my age. I was fifteen but said I was older to get jobs. I had just started working at Greer’s market in Fairhope, wrapping meat and cleaning cases. Jimmy was the assistant manager. He was twenty-five and so nice. I picked him out and wanted to date him. He thought I was older.

I offered a ham to a guy working with us, if he got me a date with Jimmy. Jimmy heard about the ham deal–splitting it would help him out. Jimmy’s brother was crushed in a coal mining accident; he was struggling to take care of his whole family. Jimmy took the deal and asked me to the drive-in movie. I was thrilled. Six of us went in his uncle's little coupe to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Jimmy picked me a rose that night–I kept that flower in my Bible all of my life. When the movie was about over I told him, ‘I think I love you.’ He said, ‘I think we should go.’ He was very responsible, and my age dawned on him. We went home. That was it.

Jimmy spoke to me now and then at Greer’s. I was helping my family, too. My father and grandfather had run the ferry back and forth from Fairhope to Mobile. Then Dad worked on a tugboat. I was eleven when he died from Tuberculosis. Before he passed, he told me to help my mom take care of my two little sisters. I started working as soon as I could.

I was at Greer’s for a few more months after that date with Jimmy, then I lied about my age again for a job at the Grand Hotel. I put on my beautiful brown linen dress and fixed my hair. They thought I was 21 and hired me to be a server. Daddy was in heaven looking down on me–I wouldn’t drink whiskey, but I could make a living selling it. I moved into the dormitory with the other girls working at the hotel. William Holden was one of my first guests; he wanted his crackers and butter first. I learned how to wait on those rich people just right.

Everyone in Fairhope knew the telephone number of the girls' dorm at the Grand Hotel. Jimmy got hold of the number, leaving me a message to meet him at the American Legion Club. I was shocked but tickled and took the hotel bus to meet him. We had a Coke. He told me about his new job at the hotel, and we started dating. I would meet Jimmy at the picture show on Wednesdays, our days off. I put a dollar in his hand every week to pay for the movie. Never saying a word. His money still went to caring for his family. We dated for a year. He got promotions and started making more money. One night after the movie, Jimmy asked, ‘Well, are we going to do it next Wednesday.’ I said, ‘Do what?’ He said, ‘I guess go to Mississippi.’ That's how he asked me to marry him. He was scared to death. I said yes.

We drove to Mississippi, but the courthouse was closed. We went around back and found a man who could marry us. I was 18 by then, but they asked Jimmy–not me–if he was old enough to get married. After we married and walked down the steps, Jimmy ahit me across the back and asked, ‘What do we do now?’ We got home and packed everyone we knew into the car for the midnight movie. That was our reception and honeymoon. We stayed out until daylight, then went to work.

We married in 1952 and later moved to a new house on a dirt road in Fairhope; it was in a cow pasture close to the bay. We bought the house with $500 down and a loan from GI bill. Jimmy worked a couple of jobs so I could stay home with our three kids; he loved coming home to the children, dogs, and me. Every night at dinner, he asked the kids, ‘Have I told you and your mother today that I love you? God has blessed us with another day.’

Jimmy was about to retire. People started saying, ‘Jim, you're getting a stomach on you. Are you drinking beer?’ He had never had a stomach and said, ‘No, I must be eating too much bread.’ It wasn’t bread; it was cancer. Jimmy was determined to live, but the doctor told me, 'you know we're in trouble.’ I didn’t say anything to Jimmy. He lived for only six more weeks. The night before he died, we walked to the Orange Street pier, sat on a bench, and talked. It was the first time he acknowledged he was dying. He told me he wasn't leaving me high and dry. Jimmy was fifty-nine years old when he died. We were married for thirty-four years, but he’s been gone for forty.

I had the best life after I finally got Jimmy Atkins. I would never find another man like him, so I didn't try. I'm 90 years old and still live in our house. I never needed for anything. I kept working and entertaining myself after Jimmy died, but it’s harder now. I broke my hip; it’s tough to get around. I can't work and rake like I used to. That’s defeating, but God keeps me here.

I’m still amazed at how Jimmy cared for us. I think I knew he would be worth the money I invested in him with the ham and the movies. I loved that man and was well-paid back.”

https://tc4women.nicheebookcollections.com/NEWSLETTER-EBOOK-LIBRARY-SIGNUP.html We now have over 1700 e-books on our library shelves for your reading pleasure, so do come along and check us out.

More articles by Su DeNyme (our resident writer) & John A Elliott are available here: https://www.nicheebookcollections.com/TC4W/ARTICLES.html