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| Tommy and his Mum |
I have
had a thought provoking and inspiring two days, with more than 500 others in Scotland travelling along the path towards person centred care and support. People at
the centre of care and support, the strap line and how it's all about relationship.
We are learning, oh how we are learning, and what inspired me was the well of
enthusiasm for this work. At all levels. I witnessed real compassion and huge enthusiasm to make person centred care the norm for all. We even mentioned the L word. Love.
Now I have joked many times its my middle name-that's because it is. Audrey
Love Birt, it was my fathers middle name too. I'm proud of that. And all through my childhood I was
teased remorselessly about it. I rarely disclosed it but today I'm wanting to
come clean. I like that we are talking openly about love and today at least I'm
going to embrace that middle name!
And yes
it's unconditional love that will move this agenda forward too. We heard that
in spades from Tommy Whitelaw. Tommy told us his story. And the story of his
Mum, Joan. Losing her to dementia, losing his life as it had been through the
long lonely years as a carer and yet never losing his belief in all of our
better selves nor his deep love for his Mum. Here is his blog to help you learn
from his powerful story too. Thanks for your courage and gift to us Tommy. It
will help so many others.
I love that your middle name is Love. And it is even better that it is dad's name too. I just wrote a novel where the characters all share the same middle name. Does Love go further back in your family? ~Catherine
ReplyDeleteYes it came from a surname on my fathers side. I believe there maybe some of them in Canada! Great theme for a novel. thnaks for connecting. Always love to hear from you. Ax
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