If you had never lived. Felt tip pens and brush. Carole Day
Sometimes the things people say to you stay with you forever, and sometimes it is the most unexpected people who say them.
Simon was an art student I knew as a teenager, he lived in a barge on the river at Hampton Court, which I thought very bohemian. One day we went for a walk in the countryside nearby, strolling along a path bordered by grasses and trees in the sunshine, quite idyllic.
Out of the blue he asked “If you had never lived, would the world be the same , or would it be different?”
I said “Well, it would be the same”.
“No”, he said, “it would be different, because you wouldn’t be in it”.
Strangely, I was very young, this had not occurred to me before, but his words resonated with me and, I think, left a lasting impression on my life.
Of course, everything we do, even quite seemingly insignificant things, have an effect on something or someone. Just a moment in time, remembered forever.
Mrs. Farrow was my Maths teacher at primary school. I can’t remember why, but one day in the summer holidays after taking my eleven plus exam, Mrs. Farrow came to my home to talk to me about it. She said I had done well and would probably go on to study at university. And then she said something that I have remembered and reflected on my entire life.
She said “I didn’t get to university, but I went to Teacher Training school instead, and that is where I met Mr. Farrow.”
Love, it says, is all you really ever need.
