My mother was born in London in 1894 and lived to be 99. She often talked about Londoners celebrating the Relief of Mafeking during the Boer War! She became one of the first lady typists in the City. She knew the alphabet backwards so was famous for racing forwards or backwards through an index very rapidly!

My earliest memories of Mum were of her tucking me up in bed, praying a simple prayer and then singing a lullaby beginning, “Just a song at twilight.” On Sundays we attended church morning and evening plus Sunday School all of which I disliked! However looking back I’m deeply grateful for the wisdom I received from the Bible stories. The lovely hymns we sung still linger in my memory and bring great joy when they are sung today. In those days Magistrates often said, “A child brought up in Sunday School is seldom brought up in court!” Through successive governments destroying the reverent observance of the Christian Sunday, we are now reaping a horrible harvest of violence, anti-social behaviour, broken homes and broken hearts. The faithful workers who taught children the Word of God cost the nation nothing but saved it millions.

My childhood ended and I was in the RAF! In 1945 whilst in India I thought it would be a nice idea to go to church so that I could write to tell my parents and make them happy. There was no Padre but some of my colleagues did the preaching! Eventually in 1946 I knelt by my bed in prayer and remembered these words of Jesus from Sunday School days, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.” [ Revelation 3:20 ] I turned from my sins, Christ entered, and then I certainly did have something to write home about!