JOHN’S

grandson jumped on his bike and pedalled off.

John told me the little three-year-old had just screeched his bike (with stabilisers) to a halt, jumped off, and said: “Wasn’t that cool, Gramps?”

There followed a short chat, during which he tried to convince the boy it was actually better to be clever than cool.

“But in the midst of all that,” John said, “he asked me about kindness.

“So, we compromised and came to the conclusion that if we could be kind first, and then clever … then that would be very cool indeed.”

I walked on smiling, and thinking that such chats probably have a bigger influence in the person a child grows up to be than most would imagine! “SHE recognised my head-scarf for what it was,” Alison said.

“She had wonderful, wavy, red hair and a smile that lifted me.”

The woman approached Alison in a garden centre, asked how her cancer treatment was going and took an air cabin crew hat from her bag. It was very elegant, with a silk scarf sewn in. She explained a friend of her son’s, who was cabin crew for an eastern airline, had sent it when she was going through her own chemotherapy. The “air-stewardess” look had really made her feel better. Would Alison like to wear it next?

How could she refuse? Now, Alison is “flying high” and looking forward to passing the hat on, like her anonymous friend did, after her own recovery.