Writing About Hannah

Who was Hannah

Hannah was my mother. When she reached 100 she had two parties. We organised one of them. The Day Centre she went to regularly organised another as she was the first of their guests to reach this great age.

This picture of my mum with Lesley and me is the link to When I Met Lesley Joseph, which starts with my mother's party at the Day Centre, then goes on to my subsequent meetings with Lesley. 

My mother loved socialising, and keeping in touch with family and friends so whilst she was alive, we organised a birthday party for her every year, from when she moved in with us on her 90th birthday, till her final one when she turned 100. This pic of her and me is a link is to an account of events before, during and after the last birthday party we organised for her.

I take after my mum, love parties and keeping in touch with everyone as much as she did. (I even used to put Collecting Friends as a hobby on job application forms.) I also know it's too easy to lose touch with people who have made an impact on our lives. When my mum died in 2003 I needed another excuse for a party every year.

So Hannah's Day was born to try to make sure that doesn't happen with anyone, whether they be relatives, friends or people we've just met. Every year since then first one, close to the date my mother gave up her body shell, we've held another Hannah's Day. Each one's been different. All have been fun.

The first Hannah's Day was in 2005. The first one I wrote about was in 2008. From 2012 I've written a diary each year of what happened before, during and sometimes after. The later ones include other bits of news about my life. Diaries are usually, but not always, addressed to folk who've been invited, but hadn't been able to be with us.

In 2010 we were recovering from the death of Nigel's mother at the end of the previous year. A lot of my time was taken up sorting out stuff from her home, so diaries took a second place.

But losing someone close made me think it might be a good idea to promote some sort of community with people living close by. Rather than invite complete strangers to a party which could go on until the early hours of the next day, I thought I’d invite neighbours to join us for the afternoon. Although I now had to produce two different Hannah's Day invitations, the main difference was the front cover. The description of the special planned event of drumming was the same for both so I’ve used the front of one as a link to the other. That way you’ll see both and be able to read about the drumming.

The pic in this link is the front of the invitation for neighbours and people I didn't know very well. It takes you to the invitation for existing friends.

For Hannah's Day 2011 I don't have any pics or a diary, just the invitation. Family illnesses and my granddaughter's wedding took up too much of my time.

This year we offered both a Biodanza and drumming sessions. Check out the invitation if you want to know more.

The link to the invitation is a pic of a present a friend made in honour of the occasion. 

You can read the diary from this link, a pic of my great granddaughter Lexi at the first Hannah's Day she was aware of, not quite four years old at the time.

2014 is the 10th Hannah's Day. So far I've only produced invitations, so I've included a link to that. Watch this space for the write up of the preparations and the event.

 As I obviously don't yet have any pics of the event, I've used the portrait of my mum as the link to the invitation.