On the pilgrim way: ‘I seemed to be the keeper of the family memory’

06/09/2024 | Reform

This summer I have been on rather a special journey down memory lane – all the more special because it was shared. I visited my 89-year-old cousin in Germany. He remembered our first ‘adult’ meeting – I was 17 and … Read More

On the pilgrim way: ‘A nightingale, its beak wide open, sang its long, complicated and beautiful song’

03/07/2024 | Reform

Sheila Maxey shares holiday photographs

This summer season seems the time for travellers’ tales and photos, and the internet means I am included. A granddaughter and her boyfriend, aged 19, are in southeast Asia for two months. They seem to … Read More

On the pilgrim way: ‘I know many widows fighting their lone battles with ageing’

03/06/2024 | Reform

Sheila Maxey is inspired by widows facing older age

I live a very sheltered life these days: a safe familiar home, no financial worries, a supportive family at the end of the phone, good neighbours for the occasional practical crisis….

… Read More

On the pilgrim way: ‘Can we discover the meaning of experiences many years later?’

29/04/2024 | Reform

It’s never too late to give thanks, Sheila Maxey finds

I can’t get T S Eliot’s words ‘We had the experience but we missed the meaning’ (Four Quartets: ‘The Dry Salvages’ III) out of my mind just now. My mind … Read More

On the pilgrim way: ‘I was a bit startled to find Rowan was dealing with the seven deadly sins’

26/03/2024 | Reform

Sheila Maxey grapples with the seven deadly sins

For the past few years, Lent, as a time of deeper prayer and self-examination, has largely passed me by but I decided that this year I would try to pay attention to … Read More

On the pilgrim way: ‘It seems such a trivial disability when I think of others who are in their 80s’

28/02/2024 | Reform

Sheila Maxey is missing her knitting

I am currently disabled. Not that you would notice….

Sheila Maxey is a member of Ingatestone United Reformed Church, Essex

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This is an extract from an article published in the March … Read More