Christmas greetings from the Hawkers 2016

Dear friends,

We wish you a happy Christmas, and hope that 2017 will give you much to be grateful for.

23rd June this year brought us change and sorrow. David’s mother Jo broke her spine in a fall and died suddenly a few days later, a sequence of events that the coroner eventually put down mainly to pneumonia. Jo has been a good example to us, coping with pain while maintaining her faith and managing to smile, and she is missed. She had a good time celebrating her 80th birthday with friends a few weeks before she died.

The year also gave us much to be grateful for. A few highlights include:

The Greenbelt festival in August. The communion service was entirely led by children, including Jamie and his friends who spoke and played kazoos in front of about 10,000 people. The Archbishop of Canterbury answered one of Jamie’s questions by saying that the Church should have fewer meetings and more parties – which sounds like a good idea to us! Other activities at the festival included hovercraft rides (in aid of Hoveraid), zorbing and Quidditch. Jamie now has medical papers proving that he has sustained an injury on a Quidditch pitch (all healed now). Join us at Greenbelt next year?

Trips to Norway where Debbie provided training for YWAM (in April) and Norwegian Church Aid (in September). On the first trip we stayed behind bars in a former prison in Skien. David and Jamie visited a 1/4 size model of Noah's Ark. Our briefing paper informed us that we would have a ‘costumes check’ on arrival at the airport, so Debbie considered wearing a Wonderwoman outfit. We also went to Dublin and Belfast for training and holiday. Jamie and Dave nearly missed the ferry. Debbie avoided nearly missing the ferry by flying. Jamie dressed up as a Viking with instructions to roar at Celts, and ran away from giants inhabiting a Causeway.

We visited Scotland and had a great time with family in the summer (camping), and attending Debbie’s Dad’s 80th birthday celebration in November (not camping).

Reunions - school & training course for Dave, visits with old friends, Rekonnect for all of us, Jo and her oldest schoolfriend getting together just four days before she died.

Dave and his sister spent much of the year clearing out and selling the house they grew up in, initially to fund the next few years of Jo's care, and then so they could stop having to manage two houses. It was slow going in the first half of the year, as they were also trying to help Jo settle into life in residential care. We'd found her the best place we could, but not everything was going smoothly. It was wonderful, though, to see her not having to push her endurance quite as hard as she had in her own home, and having better conversations with family and friends than she'd been able to have for years. Inevitably though, with the change of enviromnemt and her progressive muscular disease, she became less mobile and more frail in the months before she died. After her death there were more consequences to deal with than we might have imagined, not least a full day's inquest, and still much to do in the house.

Generations of Jo's extended family have hoarded many priceless possessions which had ended up in her home - well, priceless in the sense that most of them weren't valuable enough to achieve any price at all. No wonder the burglar who broke into her house in January left without taking anything. After having to clear her care home flat in two weeks, Dave was aware of the luxury of having a house to put them back into, and of having months, instead of just days or weeks, to decide what to do with her posessions there. It's been interesting working out how to dispose of them, and will continue to be interesting next year, as rather a lot of them have ended up in our house, pending further sorting. We're grateful to all those who have helped us by taking them elsewhere. We're also grateful that the house is now sold (subject to contract) and mostly cleared and ready to say goodbye to.

Dave also got injured at CBeebies Land, took three children safely on a walk over dangerous rocks in the Peak District only to get his car stuck below a kerb, almost got evicted from an allotment, went to a bishop's consecration and failed to get a selfie, hosted paradoxical parties (45rpm, with too-quiet stereo, & house-cooling, with a bonfire), and grew an unkempt beard to appear as Abanazer in the Sawley panto.

Jamie was a constable and orphan in a musical, 'Olivia', moved Cubs, took up reading, the clarinet, family history, house-hunting, Star Wars, Pokemon, and earning pocket money, and has provided creative insights in his school work. For example, when he was asked to write something positive about volcanoes, he wrote, ‘When people are killed by volcanoes the volcanoes make them look more healthy’.

Debbie also tried to be creative, and published a book called, ‘The curious incident of a boy’s transformation: Helping a child on the autistic spectrum’. Contact us for a copy if you are interested, or the Kindle version is available with free sample chapters. Dave has also written about his own experiences here.

Dave wrote a few blog posts earlier in the year about other things we'd been up to, before Jo died. Events somewhat overtook us after then, but you can find earlier posts here.

We have continued our work supporting mission and aid workers. Debbie is also now part of the BPS Presidential Task Force on refugees (no, not that President). As part of this she discovered that it's OK to carry a rucsack into a meeting at the House of Lords, where she was given a badge asking her not to wander around without an escort, but no escort. She also got invited to speak to male church leaders who, she was told, wouldn't come to hear a woman unless a (male) bishop spoke first. The bishop said he thought she spoke better than he did.

A tribute to Dave's mother can be found here.

May God bless you in 2017 with smiles, hope and friendship.

Love from Debbie, Dave and Jamie

Last updated

You are welcome to use our contact form, or email us, to reply.