AND FINALLY

I’m always here to help you

WE WENT to a glorious country wedding in a perfect small church in Box, Wiltshire, packed to witness Jamie Fielden (see the wonderful charity jamiesfarm.org.uk) marry his girlfriend Beth McLeod. I’ve known the groom since he was a child; it was a delight to see him hitched at last.

One of the hymns they chose was the ever-popular Lord Of The Dance — so easy and uplifting to sing. But something about this column occurred to me even while we were singing so happily (obviously I rarely stop thinking about it!) and when that song was the first one in our own village church the very next day, it felt like a sign.

The fourth verse says this: ‘I danced on a Friday / When the sky turned black / It’s hard to dance / With the devil on your back . . . ’

Now you probably know that the words are about Jesus — hence the reference to Good Friday. But I suddenly thought: ‘That’s like my readers!’ How quickly people can be plunged into despair — dancing one moment, then bedevilled by sadness the next.

How quickly the skies of your world can turn black, leaving you with no energy to lift your feet, let alone dance away from the heavy feeling of bleakness, nastiness or sorrow.

And the ‘sign’ for me is that I must always remember how very hard it is for the men and women who write in.

The ‘devil’ might be real depression, but it can also be a feeling of utter helplessness. People become stuck within their own problem and don’t know how to move — and so while sometimes I might be bracing, I must always try to be kind, too.

It was a useful thing to remember. Nevertheless, I had a favourite mantra, when my daughter Kitty was often very ill and miserable because of a condition she was born with. Even though it was hard for us, I used to promise: ‘We can find a way through this.’

And I couldn’t write this column if I didn’t believe in possibility.