A sad day

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It has been, strangely, a very sad day. This morning my grandmother told me that her best friend of 60 years has cancer and probably won’t live out the week. This woman has called my grandmother every single day since my grandfather died five years ago, and has been her main support, even though she’s in her nineties. Then a few hours later I heard that a close friend’s father had died. So I drove home and cried, and had a bath and cried, and read a book and cried, and generally behaved like a wet sponge. I’m not entirely sure why I’m so upset. Yes, I love my grandmother and my friend dearly. But I didn’t know the people who were special to them. It just seems so unfair that people have to suffer - often people who could really do without it. At the same time and even though it’s not my grief, I feel how near God is to those who mourn - “an ever-present help in time of trouble”.

I’m ashamed that the last post was all about my hair. There are much more important things in the world.


O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home.

Under the shadow of thy throne,
thy saints have dwelt secure
sufficient is thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
or earth received her frame,
from everlasting thou art God,
to endless years the same.

A thousand ages in thy sight
are like an evening gone;
short as the watch that ends the night
before the rising sun.

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
be thou our guide while troubles last,
and our eternal home!