Christmas

The time between Christmas and new year can be a quiet time at work but often the clients we have visiting our bases are ones who we haven’t seen for a while, who are doing well and keen to catch up and let us know how they are getting on.

I remember clearly one day when one after the other old clients came to see us, each healthy, happy and home for Christmas (instead of in prison). I heard stories of new homes where they had previously been homeless, new marriages, new jobs, new children and new college courses. I saw happy faces and proud people.

The effect was to lift my spirits, which was needed for one particularly poignant reason. The very last thing I had done before going home for Christmas was to take a phone call from a grieving father, whose son was due to join our programme but who had overdosed the previous evening.

I can’t tell you how much it meant to see a steady stream of people who were doing so well. That experience kept me going for another year.

.