My sister is in a care home after an accident many, many years ago and one of the activities she most enjoys is ceramics. She is helped to make all sort of things, and her style is always distinctive, the colours she chooses are always recognizable. Several years ago there was a young man working there called Simon who was such a great personality. I’m not sure what his exact rôle was, sometimes he would be getting the residents to join in a sing-song, sometimes he would be running a quiz, and every week he worked in the ceramics class. He and my sister really hit it off, always teasing each other and laughing at the joke, and one day he challenged her to make a ceramic figure of him, and with a little help she made a clay head which certainly looked like him. As part of the challenge, he did the same for her; he was so gifted and clever it looked just like her. I told him that he ever wanted to sell it I would like it, I could give him the money or donate it to the residents’ fund at the care home. Several months later, it was Christmas… and guess what I got as a present from my sister, but really from Simon?
Lois Elsden 