‘Happy New Year!’ my dear friend, Jill, and I chorus, delighted to hear each other’s voices. We start to swap news which quickly becomes a reciprocal roll call of the sick, the dead and the fragile elderly. ‘Whatever happened to fun?’ we ask ourselves, laughing as we recall our carefree younger selves in our dark green school uniform and ridiculous platform shoes. Many moments of 2015 were not much fun, but it was the year when I had the most precious gift of all, that of seeing my new granddaughter come into the world. And lately, when we’ve spent many, many hours on dark, rain-soaked roads, or waiting by my mother-in-law’s hospital bed, I’ve had to remind myself to look for the joy in each day, to remember there is light in the gloom. We were fortunate to be able to share Christmas with my daughters, our sons-in-law and our granddaughter. One blustery day, we took Smallest Person to the beach and it was an utter delight to see the world afresh through her eyes, seeing her l...
Christine Stovell, author and freelance writer, on living and writing in West Wales