I Can't Get Her Out Of My Head.

Sadly, normally I would have other things on my mind, there is SO much in the news, it is usually all bad news. One of the bad news happened last month and has happened many times before, this year, last year and many years in the past, and will happen again this year and next year.

One lady made a difference, to me she was just a number, or she was, until I saw her picture. Her name was Mariam Nouri Hamadameen and she was only twenty-one years old, when she drowned on the Channel crossing tragedy, with twenty-six others.

They all, on the little boat had one thing in common, they wanted a better life for themselves.

Who wouldn’t want a better life? They also had in common, a lot of money would have been handed over to crooks, maybe for some, all the money they had in the world.

I know a lot of people have come here, in the wrong way, but …….. for some, it is their last chance, their only hope not everyone who arrives here is bad, some are good and have made our country richer.

She was very, very beautiful, and that’s what stood out to me, she was the ‘face’ of the desperate.

In the past, I’ve said to some, “Wouldn’t you like to have a better life if you could?” We are SO lucky here in the West. Some people around the world, live in ‘hell.’

I watched on television yesterday an old man on roller skates in his nineties, skating around the grounds of the care home where he lives, his walker was on wheels too, he was holding on to it and was doing many laps. He said, “I saw Major Tom and Marcus Rashford, feeding the British children, and I wanted to do something too,” He went on, “When I was a child, I was hungry,” He wanted to raise five hundred pounds, to date he has raised thousands, for children to be able to have food.

It was then, I said to my Husband, “In my life, I have never been hungry,” Which was true, Paul said, “I remember my dad had the best, and we had what was left, he had the only meat in the house, Mum and us kids would have our dinners without meat.” I didn’t experience that.

I remember when we went abroad, and we saw poverty, and I said to my kids, “Remember this when you go back home, this is real poverty, these people have nothing.” They didn’t forget it.

For the company I work for, I’ve worked at three very different sites, not everyone at work can say that. One site is Very, very difficult, the other is Very, very strict but in total I have work for the company almost thirty years. One of the things, Head Office wanted to do years ago, was to get us all to work at different sites so we could appreciate what others do in different parts of the country. It would be for one year at each site, it never happened. Now, with that in mind, imagine me waking up one morning in a different part of the world where everyone around me, for hundreds and hundreds of miles had nothing! I have tried to think, what would it be like if it took me a year to get back home. I wonder how important I would feel, having worked very hard, and after the year, handing over all of my money to someone, I had no choice, but to trust, who wanted me to get on a small, flimsy dingy, made for a few people, but I can see, fifty or more on board, I can’t even swim, it’s dark, everyone is cold and hungry, the only thing that is allowed for each of us, is a small rucksack but we are all hopeful, nothing beats hope. I am also fearful, for I have heard the rumours, of some not making it to the other side…..

Back to reality, the lovely Mariam didn’t make it, nor did none of those with her. She must have been so terrified, may her sweet soul rest in peace.