"Lives Reflected"

Over the past year our lives have been put on hold and  we have had restrictions on our lives in order to make sure of our future. 23/3/21 12 noon we stopped to remember those who lost their lives. Rainbows, daffodils, Spring time , vaccinations All giving us Hope for a Better Future.

Joanne Ferguson Bridal established in 1985 for the first time ever had to find a way to help her brides with new means of technology and new ways of communicating so virtual appointments became a new thing in order to reassure and alleviate the stress.

 Covid-19 restrictions as good as stopped all weddings and brides had issues to cope with that seemed so unfair.

The NHS fought the battle of a century as Covid-19 took loved ones and prevented others from the treatment and care that was considered "normal"

People were dying and loved ones denied their final dignified good byes.

21/3/21 a year to the day that I last saw my Dad who was in the Ulster Hospital after a fall and dyed some weeks later probably without understanding why we weren't allowed to visit him.

The strangest of times, cruel, desperate times which have effected us All.

The Covid 19 pandemic has impacted lives and livelihoods across our land and across the world. But one of the most painful aspects has been upon our grief and grieving. In hospital wards, Intensive Care Units, in Nursing Homes and in family homes lives have been lost directly to Covid 19, and many more lives have been lost within the necessary restrictions that our communities have followed to restrict the spread of the disease.

So much which helps us in the final days of the life of someone we love, know or care about has been denied to us: a hand held close, a whispered final farewell, a prayer breathed. We have not been able to gather together to share memories and tears. We have even been restricted in how we can gather for funerals. Each of these denials has added to our grief and made healing more difficult.

For others, lives have been impacted in very different ways. Those who have worked in hospitals and care homes have faced immense pressures. And from teachers and to shop workers, ambulance crews to delivery drivers, everyone’s working lives have been turned upside down. While for others home working and home schooling, short term working or the reality of redundancy has radically changed personal lives and circumstances.

It is into these very personal places that we offer “Lives Reflected”. With this Website, we invite you to make a personal tribute, in word and picture, to someone you have known or loved who has died, whether directly from Covid 19, or for any other cause since the start of Lockdown in our country. Your tribute placed within our on-line Book of Remembrance will allow you to share your memory of someone special in a precious and respectful place. Alternatively you may wish to share a longer personal story of the impact of the pandemic upon your life, or the life of someone special to you.

“Lives Reflected”, an initiative in these times of Covid 19 by those at the Belfast Cathedral, to remember and to reflect on the lives of people we have known and loved.

Thanks to one of my former brides Gillian Collins, for sharing this.

Happy St Patrick's Day 2021 from Belfast Northern Ireland

This St Patrick's Day will not be "Normal" Have Hope, Be kinder, Spread Love & Friendship.

Bridal Blogger

What do you do when weddings are postponed?

Well there is always something to work on.

 So it's time for a new post. They say we should write down our feelings, that writing a diary is good for people. However these days I feel that there is so much noise that sometimes the best thing we can do is to stop and listen. Listen to nature, the birds chirp away and just get on with life, listening to them can really cheer you up.

Have you found lockdown mentally difficult? I have been surprised as to how it has affected me. I have always credited myself with resilience and ability to cope with anything thrown at me, but this last year has tested me. It has been a year since my Dad fell and that seemed to be the start of all the things that seemed out of my control. Covid, cancer, do all nasty things start with a C. Well I thought I would start a group and call it the Creative C so that I could find some good in that letter C. But everything has seemed to get in the way of that so far.

I have been clearly out and cleaning through this Covid/ Coronivirus crisis and I came across an article written by Charles Swindoll that I want to share with you.

It is all about ATTITUDE!!!

The longer I live the more I realise the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than sucesses, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is that we have a choice everyday. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how i react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes'