Home Thoughts Weekly

I’m delighted to tak e part in a blog splash to celebrate the release of the third book in Rhoda Baxter’s award nominated Smart Girls series, Girl in Trouble . I rather thought I’d be putting my feet up and handing the blog over to Rhoda. ‘No,’ said Rhoda, ‘I’d like you to write on a prompt inspired by one of the story threads in Girl in Trouble . Ah. In Rhoda’s novel , both her heroine, Olivia, and Walter, the hero, undergo changes that they feel are bad, but end up being positive. So the prompt I kept returning to was, ‘ Have you ever had a blessing in disguise?’ Like everyone, I’ve had some truly bad, downright difficult and unbearably sad times which have led to changes in my life. Losing Dad was a turning point which gave me the impetus to compete a novel, but I’d give all of my writing success, such as it is, to have a single day with him again. Other turning points are just too raw or too personal for public consumption and then I thought about something that’s happened...

After ominous forecasts for strong winds , race day dawns with cool temperatures, persistent drizzle but no wind. Hurrah! Tom and Ma head off to secure a good spot to watch the runners and I walk through Cardiff in my running gear, an old jumper to keep me warm and a tent-like rain poncho. There’s half an hour to go before I can enter my race pen, forty-five minutes before the elite runners set off. I faff around for a bit, skipping and stretching, brave the portaloos which are surprisingly ok and leave my jumper and poncho to be recycled. Then it’s time to take up my position in my pen. This point - the long wait for the starting klaxon - is a time for reflection. I think about Dad, I think about other families who have lost loved ones to pancreatic cancer, I think about my grandchildren and the future. I worry about how vulnerable we all are, some 20,000 runners and the spectators who’ve turned out on this damp day. I fret about about an outbreak of runners trots. AND THEN ...