Oh, the things we do for our Mothers!

ACN-NW's Master Heart-Weaver

Curved diamond heart

My Little Heart Weavers

My children must really, really love me. Over the years they have always risen to every challenge that I have set. They never let me down when I needed their help in the office at Lancaster Cathedral; they haven’t always suffered in silence, but they always helped me when there was no one else. I am pleased to announce that my in-house team of helpful teens has now pledged its allegiance to ACN-NW and, as the Regional Manager, I must say that I am delighted and, further, that I am not surprised. Partly they help because they are clever people and they know that if their mother is happy, they are that much more likely to be granted the next favour/loan that they ask for, but they also help because they are interested and they care. They are nearly grown up now and I am incredibly proud of their strong sense of right and wrong and the ways in which they express their faith. Perhaps all those formative years of setting up folding tables and handing out service sheets and washing up after parish lunches haven’t done them any harm after all…

The past two days saw all four of us involved in assembling the craft resources for PRAYERS FROM OUR HEARTS (yes—I’m still excited, so it’s still in caps…). I know that I introduced you all to the joys of paper heart-weaving when Scottish Lorraine came to visit the ACN-NW office. My eldest son and I have put together what we feel is a comprehensive and deeply helpful series of images to provide step-by-step instructions for weaving hearts—this took hours away from the Latin poetry that Son #1 is memorising for some university exams he will sit in a few months. It was worth it, though—he is a great hand model and a heart-weaving natural! Yesterday my daughter and younger son came on board to help me develop nine different patterns and to weave an example of each one. I was very grateful that they were willing to help as this made what would have taken me all day into an enjoyable couple of hours spent together. I must report that I am doubly proud that they would help with this—I have been weaving hearts for a couple of years now and my children, despite much initial eye-rolling and merciless ridiculing of their ‘sad’ mother, all have mastered the basic techniques—especially after I forced all of them (and my husband) to weave fifty golden hearts in less than a week for my in-laws fiftieth anniversary a couple of years ago. They claim to have been ‘scarred’ by that experience, but, to help their mother and Iraqi and Syrian refugees, they are back in the heart-weaving saddle once again. Thank you, Christopher, Clemmie and Gabriel!

Scottish Lorraine and I are currently looking for volunteers (with or without primary school-aged children) to test drive the heart-weaving resources. If you want to give it go, just let me know—but be warned: heart-weaving may change your life forever!

Thanks for reading! Caroline