Hey humans. How's it going? Susan Ruth here.
Thanks for listening to another episode of Hey Human Podcast.
This is episode 365,
and I had a conversation with Edna Klein.
Edna blows my mind. She's rescued children in India,
been an olive farmer with her husband Jack and rescued dogs in Spain,
uh, in her younger years. She was a journalist.
She's been a clothing designer and is a recycled materials artist,
and she teaches kids how to turn junk and trash into beautiful art and upcycled
usefulness.
She's an octogenarian who wrote the World Beloved
poem about losing a pet rainbow bridge when she was herself,
but a bereaved 19 year old, so decades ago. And she,
she didn't even know what an impact those beautiful words
have had on the world. She had no idea. She found out much, much,
much late in life that this poem she wrote at 19 about her
beloved dog major had gone on to touch the lives
of hundreds of millions of people. Just incredible.
She even reads the poem on this episode,
and I gotta tell you as she read it, I felt my own beloved,
Mikey, who I lost a handful of years ago.
I felt him curled up next to me by my side as I listened to her read it.
I was sobbing. It was so beautiful. So, yeah,
I'm really excited for you to hear this episode. Just woof,
you know, so woof. It's so great, so excited.
All right. Check out hey human podcast.com for links.
And to learn more about my guests in the show, check out Susan ruth.com.
To learn more about me and my other artistic endeavors follows Susan Ruth
ism. And hey, human podcast on social media. Find my albums on Spotify,
apple Music, Amazon music, wherever you get your music,
you can look for my most recent record.
It's called All I Ever Wanted Was Everything.
And Check Out My Relationships and Sex Show with sexologist and healthcare
practitioner, Mara Edelman. It's on YouTube Under Are We There yet?
Podcast show rate, review, and subscribe. Hey,
human podcast on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.
And thank you for listening. Be well. Be kind, please,
you know, lift each other up. I know I say this every episode, but I mean it,
we're in this together. Be love, just, yeah, it's,
it's good stuff. And enjoy this episode with Edna,
who is an absolute delight.
Her accent is great. She's Scottish, and I just,
I'm so tickled,
I'm so thankful that sh that she said she would be on the show.
And shout out to Paul Erez,
who gave me her contact information and helped me reach out to her.
He wrote an incredible article about her and, uh,
I will put that in the links page as well,
so that you can read it cuz it's a really lovely article. And yeah,
just thank you. Keep spreading. Hey, human around.
Share it with your friends and your family and, and all that good news.
And let's get into this. All right, here we go.
Hello.
Edda?
Yes. Hello.
How are you? Hello. Hi.
I'm fine, thank you. Um, I'm sort of a bit, um, Susan.
Yes. I forget names.
Yes, Susan. That's correct.
Okay, that's lovely. Now we're on Unen .
So I was reading your article on the internet. Well,
I was going through things and looking at it.
I learned of you through Paul Coones and Paul was on my show as well.
And I randomly saw your article that he wrote,
which was lovely. Uhhuh and reached out to him. Mm-hmm.
Yes, he's good.
Yeah, he's fantastic. Mm-hmm. .
And I asked him if he could introduce us,
because I thought it would be lovely to have you on my show. ,
here you are.
Oh, wow. Yeah, that would be good.
Need to be rehearsed. Will it? Or we just do it off the cuff. Oh.
We just do it like old friends talking on the phone.
. Yes. Well, I'm, I'm 82 now.
I'll be 83 in September. And I take every opportunity, you know,
to just enjoy myself. I spend a lot of time over here.
I go around the schools and I teach the children how to recycle things.
I love.
That.
And then I have a group of children that come to my house and they all have
something that they want to recycle or they think they could recycle it,
and then we talk about it and decide what they're going to do.
Then they make it, finish it, and they're so proud of them.
And then they go back to the school and teach the other children how to do it.
You were born in Scotland?
Yes, I was born in Aberdeen Shire in Scotland.
And then we moved up to Inverness and live about,
um,
five or six miles from Ness where Ness is.
Did you have a lot of pets growing.
Up? Well, ma Major was my very own.
I had a twin brother and an older, uh, brother and sister.
So we all had a dog. We had to share the dog. And then,
but Major was my very own dog, the first one I ever had, which was mine.
And I just loved him so much. You know, we adored,
we just adored each other. And my mom, she used to say to me,
I don't know how you get major to be so obedient and look at him,
he looks at you just adores you. And that that's what it was. You know,
we just had a very close relationship. It was lovely.
And then he was, he was really quite ill. I can't even remember.
It's a long, long time ago. I can't even remember what the illness was,
but he died in my arms. And I've,
I've never ever forgotten that feeling of losing him.
And, and I was only 19. And of course you're very emotional at that time.
I was, oh, easily into the end of the second day and I was still crying.
I couldn't eat and I couldn't sleep. I was so distressed.
And my mom came through and she used to call me Nanny when I was young.
And it's cuz my twin brother used to call me Nanny. And, um,
she said, look, nanny,
you'll have to stop crying. You're just gonna make yourself ill. She said,
I'll tell you what to do. I know how sad you are losing Major.
So she said,
you write everything down that you're feeling right now.
And I, you know,
I I I just stopped crying and stopped crying and I thought,
that's what I've got to do. So I was really just, I got a,
I took a page outta my sister's book, her Schoolbook, she's an older sister.
And, uh, it was a clear page. So I wrote the first page of it.
You have read it, have you? Oh yes. Any bridge. Yes, yes. .
Well, I wrote the first page and then when I turned it over, I thought, oh,
what have I done? It was one of my sister's work, look, I'd taken it out of,
and that page was written on.
So I sort of rubbed out the half of the page and wrote it and then scribbled out
the rest so she wouldn't recognize it. . And that was how, um,
was born. And it was,
I felt like Major was talking to me,
but at the same time I thought, there's more to this.
There's absolutely more to this. And then after I sat down, you know,
and thought about it,
I thought this was God I was absolutely stricken with,
with terrible, terrible pain of losing him. Never imagined anything like that.
And then, um, after I had written it, I,
my mom said to me, oh, it's a bit messy. She said,
would you write it again and make it nice and neat? And I said, no,
cuz this is just how I feel. You know,
when I wrote it and I was crying and I I had tear stains on one of the
corners. So I, um,
tore the corner off it. And that's, and then that was it.
The Rainbow Bridge was born and I,
two or three friends came around cuz they knew I was so upset.
And we all went out and we had our lunch somewhere, I can't remember now. And,
um, they, they were all crying.
They were all sitting crying in the restaurant when they,
when I read them the poem. So they asked if they could have a copy,
and I said, yes, but I'll have to write them. I don't have a typewriter. I mean,
this was the way back in 1959. And, um,
I just wrote them that it was a bit better.
And there was spelling states and things marked,
but I think that's the only way that my poem must have got out,
because they're the only ones that got a copy. They just loved it.
And of course they were showing it to everybody and telling everybody about it.
And I, I didn't know it had gone so far. I had no idea it had gone like that.
It was my personal poem and just the feelings,
my darling dog, you know.
I, I mean, I've read it so many times over my life and I, I had a dog,
like you had major, I had a dog, Mikey, that was my soulmate,
that felt uhhuh when he passed away.
It felt like my heart had been ripped from my body. And.
Yes, that's how I felt.
Yeah, it's the worst pain.
And it's interesting because reading your poem,
it feels like you're, you're, you're reaching through the,
the ether and somebody who knows somebody who really knows is,
is reporting back to you to let you know that mm-hmm.
This is what's gonna happen and this is how it's all going to play out.
What I found, what, what my friends said, you know,
that makes us feel unafraid of ever dying.
And that was exactly, I, that wasn't how I felt, but that's what they felt,
you know, because it, whenever they died, they'd all got pets.
They would go over and meet their pets. And it, it did,
it sued them so much because really, I mean, we, we all felt,
we all had dogs and we all felt just so sad at the thought
of even losing them, you know? And they were, they were,
it was just so sad. I said, well, I'm sorry. And they said, don't be sorry.
It's an experience.
I still miss my kids 10 years.
Yeah. Oh my gosh. I do. But I do have more dogs.
I've always had dogs from then on. Cause my mom said to me, look,
you're going to carry on breaking your heart over this. She says,
major would want you to get another dog just to keep you happy
and stop you crying. And that was what I did. I got another one,
A golden Labrador just like major. Oh.
And I felt I hadn't lost them then. And my mom always said that.
She said, it's not, it's not bad to replace your dog.
It's because you have a lovely,
lovely memory of him and you just don't want to, you know,
to lose him. And that's what I felt.
Because you think, oh, how can any dog replace the dog that I love so much?
Mm-hmm.
, I know it's difficult, but it it does. I mean, it does happen.
I mean, I've lost down, as I said, I'm over 80 now, and I've had many,
many dogs.
And at the moment I have Missy and she's a little b jean
freeze. And shes fully trained as a carer for the elderly.
And she's a wonderful little dog. And my friend Katie,
friend Katie and Andrew, who have a holiday home for dogs,
and they always used to take my dogs if I was on holiday.
And Katie arrived at the door and she had this little white bi jean
friends with her. And I said, oh, she just brought me to see it. And I said,
well, where, where is it having a holiday from this one? And she said, well,
I had it now for three weeks. She said, she told me the story,
the old lady died. And she said he, um,
her son and his wife had to take, uh,
the review. And, um,
they arrived at Katie's house and said, we're going on a holiday,
can you keep this little last for us? Yes. She said, that's fine.
And she didn't take anything in advance, you know, money or anything,
but they just didn't come back. They never came back. What? And,
um, oh, it was just so sad. Anyway, what a happy little thing she is.
She's absolutely lovely.
Eight o'clock every night she goes to my bedroom and
she comes through with one slipper and goes back for the next one.
And then she goes back and drags my pajamas through the top and then the
trousers, and then she goes into the bathroom and pulls down my dressing gown.
And then she throws that as well, drags it through,
and then she niles it all into a heap and sits down and looks up at me and
goes, oof. Get ready for bed.
That is so adorable.
. She, she is, she's absolutely wonderful.
She never goes through a door in front of me.
She doesn't go through a gate in front of me. She watches me,
and if she thinks I'm in danger,
she comes down and goes in front of me and sits looking up at me giving a little
growl. You know, don't do it. But she's an absolute darling.
She's just absolutely lovely. So that's little Missy.
I did not know that dogs were trained for elder care.
Yes, yes. They're trained over here for care for the Elder,
and they go and get things for them, you know, and just help with everything.
And Missy's still the same. She doesn't like to be outside away from me.
She likes to be close. And if I have a, we have a big wood, you know,
just along from our house, so I take them to walk there every day.
And my other dog is Lucy. And, um, he is,
uh, an Andalusian pco Oh. And they're used,
used in spring in Spain for catching, um,
bore pigs bore in the mountains and the rabbits
and foxes and whatever, you know, that's what they're trained for.
And my husband and I, eventually after, oh, just,
we retired and Jack decided that he wanted to buy an
olive grove or olive grove, and we would like to move to Spain.
So that's what we did. And we had a beautiful house and three,
I think it's three years, difficulty remembering, um,
huge Olive grove and just a lovely time, you know, I loved it.
But anyway, um, the man that was down below us,
he had his schools and his house and lots of things.
And we used to hear every day these dogs squealing and him
shouting. And I, I said to him, you know, what are you doing to these dogs? Um,
she them in Spanish. And he said, there's been noura.
Oh my God. I was so mad at the first time I ever felt like swearing at somebody.
But anyway,
the next thing he did was took one of his dogs and hang it from a tree so that I
could see it. Oh my God. It was awful. It was awful.
And I just cried and cried. When I think of it,
I I was absolutely horrified.
And a little while, wasn't long after he did that,
we had a sort of a huge, it was, it's a small earthquake,
but we lived in the mountains as well. And we had a,
a very big wall at the edge of our property. And,
um, the guy down below, he was on the end and we, as,
as I said, this came down because it was like an earthquake.
It was so that fell well, well was broken.
And anyway, to cut a long story short, my other, well,
I had two spaniels at that time. Mm-hmm. ,
we had Megan and puffing and, um,
Megan came running along the terrace and she was pulling,
pulling at my trouser leg, you know, come and see, come and see.
So we were a huge long open terrace at the front.
And then round the end was the laundry area. And he rushed,
and, and the door to the washing machine was open and he popped his head inside.
And then he came out and pulled my trouser leg over to sea and there was this
little puppy, and it was in my washing machine.
Absolutely terrified. Absolutely. Anyway,
um, my friend Alma was our vet,
and her husband was the local judge.
So she went to see him and, and they taught him actually,
you know, being bad to one of the dogs.
He used to train these puppies so that they, and they would've obey.
And then they had to go and kill something.
So they might have been about six months old.
And by that time they were fully trained to, you know, just to be a hunting dog.
So this little dog, we just worked at it. Anyway, almo came up and she said,
oh, and what a mess. She said,
there's a room broken and his leg is broken. And she said, he's just,
these are her words, he's, but he's beaten to hell. Oh my goodness.
I was so upset. I knew there was something terribly wrong with him,
but I almost sorted that out. And she said, he's not getting off with this.
He's not getting off with it. So, uh, she,
I went down with major and she put the, she set his leg, put a plaster,
and I watched her doing it, everything. And then we came back. And,
um, but later that afternoon,
she went down to see this man and she asked to see his dogs
and she said she was just horrified.
She turned around and went straight to the police station and said, look,
you've gotta come and sort this man out and the police for what?
And the, the policeman said, oh gosh, that's okay. Um,
they're just training their dogs, so seemingly they all do that.
So she got her husband, who I said was a local judge, and, um,
she took, he was with her when she went there. And he, he took,
uh, all of the dogs away.
Alma went and got the ball and took them away and the guy didn't object cuz the
judge was there. And anyways,
I had him charged and he had eight years in prison,
which was great delight to me. And then Spain,
you don't live off the government while you're in prison.
You have to have the money to pay.
So anybody that has a house and property, they lose everything. And also,
um, there's, there's no national, you know,
government money or anything goes to them. But he lost that.
And all his dogs were taken away. And then he lost his land as well.
Excuse me, what are you barking at? No, no, that was giving a bar.
Probably somebody No, it's all right. Sorry about that. That's okay. Um,
and he, he also, um,
Jose let the other prisoners in the prison,
he let them know what he had done to this little dog.
So his life wasn't pleasant in there.
So he had his ribs bashed a few times and a broken leg.
So it maybe taught him a lesson, but I, I don't know, it's a terrible,
terrible thing to do to dogs.
Oh yeah.
My, he has never been smacked since.
I've just loved him and he's so loving and obedient and, you know,
I can take a bone outta his mouth and he doesn't even grumble.
He's absolutely wonderful. Aw. And this is the same because she's fully trained.
So I'm, I, he's now 12 and I'm thinking,
well, if he's going to live as long as my spaniels, I'll be so happy. Um,
my spaniels lived,
puffin lived to 21 that was in Spain,
and then Megan lived till 19.
That's incredible, because Spaniels don't usually live that long.
Well, they don't, but I think the thing is that they never,
they only had raw meat and suitable vegetables.
All their meat was raw because that's the way they live naturally. And that's,
that's what they had. And, and they, they did,
they didn't get things like sweeties and biscuits,
full of oatmeal and things like that. I think that's what,
I think that's what shortens their lives.
Interesting.
And Nui is, um,
he's the same and so is Missy. They just get raw meat and fish and chicken.
Getting back to the Rainbow Bridge. The Rainbow Bridge has been shared. And,
and sometimes people erroneously claim that they wrote it. And, uh,
hundreds of millions of people have read your poem
and taken it to heart and, and had a sense of peace because of it.
Is it so mm-hmm. ,
is it so strange for you to know that it's been read by millions upon millions?
Friend of mine lost her dog when she went to the vets.
She came to show me that this lovely poem she'd got. And I said, that's mine.
No. She said, I got it from the vet, it's not yours. I said, , it is.
I wrote it. And she said, oh my goodness me. So it's,
it's gone around.
And now I've realized that every vet in the country has my poem and they give it
to people when they lose a dog. Yeah. Or lose an animal, you know?
And I think that's wonderful.
Is that how you found out? You found out because of your friend?
Yes. That's how I found out. I had no idea to gone so far. And I,
I then I went to my vet and um, he,
he acted down on his knees when I told him. And he, and I said, look,
this is the original. And he, he went down on his knees. He said,
do you realize that this is all over the world? And I said, no,
I didn't. But I said, I saw the one that you'd given to my friend.
So I said, I thought I would come in and give you a copy of my one.
And he was absolutely delight. So from then on,
it's just been a steady thing of phone calls and then people sending
emails. And Paul does so much for me. Yes. He's a lovely, lovely man.
He's so much.
Such a lovely man. It's great. And I'm, I'm glad, I mean,
I understand the idea that when you write something like this that changes the
world and that it doesn't. I do.
And it doesn't feel like maybe it belongs to you, but you did.
You were the channel for it. You were the writer.
So I'm glad that you're getting the recognition.
Yeah, well it's wonderful, but it's also very wonderful the way it happened,
you know? Yeah. It just, it,
it just couldn't be anything else than from God, you know? I mean,
so many millions of people have it, you know, it's even been, um,
translated into Russian. It's amazing.
I have to explain to you why I'm forgetting things. I had a stroke.
I've actually had three small ones. Oh.
But the only thing it affected was my memory. You,
when I first one and I came out of hospital, I didn't even know my name.
I didn't even know I had dogs. I didn't know where I stayed.
And I had to work hard to get the whole lot back again. Almost all of it back.
Mm. So it's been a lesson for me, you know,
to learn what to do with it and to also appreciate things which I didn't bother
about before.
You have the poem with you right now?
Yes. It's in my arms.
Would you like to read it? That would be lovely.
Yes. Yes, I will. Hold on. Right.
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies, that has been especially close to someone here,
your pet goes to the Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends.
They can run and play together. There's plenty of food,
water, and sunshine and friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health
and strength.
Those who were hurt are made better and strong again.
Like we remember them before they go to heaven.
They're happy and content except for one small thing.
They each miss someone very special to them who had to be left
behind. They all,
I'm sorry, this is tears me apart when I read it. You know?
Um,
being ill and old are restored.
Your health and strength and those who are hurt are made better.
And the strong, again, like we remember them before they go to heaven,
they're happy and content except for one small thing.
They each miss someone very special to them who had to be left behind.
They all run, play together,
but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance,
his eyes bright are shining, his body shakes.
Suddenly he begins to run from the herd,
rushing over the grass, his legs, carrying him fast, faster and faster.
He has seen you.
And when you and your special friend finally meet you, cuddle in a happy hug,
never to be a part again. You and your petter in tears,
your hands again, cuddle his head.
And you look again into his trusting eyes.
So long gone from life, but never absent from your heart.
And then you cross the rainbow bridge together. So that's it.
The whole thing.
Thank you. Amazing.
Me cry.
Makes me cry too. It's so beautiful. Oh.
So I, I, I know that it, it came from God, this,
and he had waited and it came, you know,
until it was coming to the time when people had to learn to love their dogs and
not hit them and destroy them.
And the amount of people that have absolutely loved this poem. And I,
I'm, I'm just, I'm just in awe, you know, that it's happened.
I, I'm, it hasn't affected me in the way, you know,
it hasn't affected me thinking, oh, I've got a poem that's all over the world.
World. I'm happy it's there cuz it's giving people comfort. Yeah. I think it is.
They do cry at the time. But it,
it's so exciting to know that you're going to see your dog again.
It's waiting for you.
I truly believe that's going to happen because these weren't my words.
They just, you know, they came without me even thinking about it.
I could feel major beside me. I could feel him beside me.
Yeah. When I read it, I cry. When I listen to you read it,
I cry because I know it's true. Yes. It's, it's the truth of it. Mm-hmm.
that makes me cry, you know?
Well, that's what I feel. It's so special. So, so special.
We lived in India before we lived in Spain. And,
um, oh, the dogs were treated very badly there. So anyway, I,
I started up a group, you know,
to save all these doggies and find new homes for them.
And then the other thing happened that we started taking in
the children of the street, you know, and rehoming them and letting them live.
We had a fairly big house,
so we kept the kids there until they felt more secure. Otherwise,
in India, they,
they used to just put their children and it's too much for them to keep.
They'd put them out on the street. It's absolutely horrendous.
That's what I did. We lived, we had a lovely house and we lived in Rodale,
coy, which is about 15 miles from, um,
the Taj Maal. And I still have photographs of us there at the time.
But I,
I'd never seen so much Coty or don't care,
don't care in all of my life. And I, and Jack said, you know,
from now on, we're just going to help every animal that needs to be helped,
we will do that. And that's what we've always done. We've always done that.
So you took in children and animals?
Not at the same time after when we, you know, we had them, well, we did that.
We got all the homes and then decided that we'd start taking children.
Cuz there was one that I found. We, we were in Delhi at the time, and,
um, this little girl,
she was sitting on the side of the street and her knees were cut,
she'd fallen somewhere in her hands were cut.
There's just nobody there to help her. And they didn't.
So when I saw her, I, I said to her, you know, what was her name?
And she told me, and I said, have you got mommy and a daddy? No. And I'm like,
God, this child was living and sleeping at night.
And she was used by Maine and goodness know was quite all.
So, I was so horrified. I said to Jack, now let's see,
know as many as we can. And that was what we did. Wow.
And it was something I loved to see them lose their sadness and be happy again.
But it, it's some places it's a horrible life. You know,
people just don't think so. We'll see.
You're a very special human Edna. You and,
and Jack both it a lot. Oh, thank you very much. A lot of people wouldn't,
they might notice, but they wouldn't necessarily do anything about it.
Oh, I know. That's what got me in some of my friends in India.
There was quite a lot of, um,
English people out there and Scottish and all of them,
and very proud of it. And, um, they just,
they weren't interested at all. And I told them that I was doing, oh,
for heaven's sake, you know, that was the attitude. You don't need that.
And I said, neither do these children need what they're going through. I said,
all they need is love. I said,
one little girl that I gave a cuddle to, she just burst out crying.
And she was shaking all over. She was so emotional. And I said to her, you know,
too, what's, what's happening with you? Why are you crying?
And she said, because I love you. And that was all she said. Mm.
And then she just cried for a while. And then she just loved me.
Like she said, she was such an adorable little girl. But again,
that was just one, you know, that, that stuck in my mind.
But I think I'm very lucky. I've had,
I've had a lovely life where I was able to do these things, you know,
and help other people. And I brought up my own children like that.
And my granddaughter actually, she's exactly like I was as a child.
So I think she's gonna have a super life as well.
Do you think that animals are sent as our soulmates or like angels?
I think if they're sent to you, you know, because especially with Sanusi,
I mean, he, I'll tell you what happened after I, uh, got them, I,
I stayed with him when, when Al Aluded the operation on his leg and everything.
So I said, Darrel never leave him again. And, um, he just,
he, he, he just got, I was only one he would come to.
He wouldn't even go to Jack, but he would come to me. And, um,
Jack said, you know, he's, he, he adores you.
Now I'm diabetic and I have to take insulin. And at times, you know,
I maybe have a hypo bone. I've got to be very careful. He was just a puppy.
He was about, oh, 12, 14 weeks old.
And he knew when my diabetes was not
behaving itself and I was having a hypo.
And he used to push and push me into where the,
the kitchen was to eat something. And it wasn't, the jacket told me,
he said, my goodness, you said this little fellow is saving your life.
And I said, well, I saved his life. So if he is,
I'm glad, you know, to let him do that. And that was what, that's what happened.
And he still, to this day,
he still pushes and shoves me into the kitchen because he
knows they consented. Yeah. You know, and, and, uh,
so that's, that's also, he's, he's really the most wonderful dog.
I just adore him. And, and oh my goodness,
they're going to cross over some time. And that is just, it's just not painful,
you know?
Yeah, it is. Nevermind. It is. We'll.
Manage. Mm-hmm. .
How did you meet Jack?
I met Jack. Well, I used to be, um,
one of the journalists with one of the papers up here, the Highland News.
And, um, I had to, uh, gosh,
interview a man and we went to the Royal Hotel and we were sitting just having a
drink at the bar.
And there was a man further across with his feet up in a stool and lounging in a
chair and smoking a cigarette. And I hate smoking, but nevermind.
Um, then the waitress came and said to us, your table is ready.
So I stood it up and I had all my papers and stuff, and as we were going over,
I fell over this man's feet. I forgot he was there.
And I was flat on the floor and my papers ,
they were all over. So anyway, um, the guy that was with me,
I was doing a feature on him and Jack were all so apologetic and,
and I said to Jack, leave me alone. I said,
you smoke . And that was,
that was how I met him. And then I,
that was on a Friday and then on a, well,
I didn't give him any information about me. But then on the,
um, yeah, that was on a Friday.
And on Monday morning when I went into the office,
I saw on my desk this massive bunch of flowers.
I've never seen a bigger bouquet in my life. And at the bottom of it,
oh, I said to him, you're, you're an oof. And that was what I said,
when you're smoking and there at the not the bottom of it was,
I'm so sorry for any upset. You feel upset,
I adore you. And it was signed the oath,
. I, I met, I met him after that.
He actually, how did I get in touch with him? Yes. He phoned my office. Um,
I was busy. I couldn't speak to him, but the, one of the editors, he said, um,
look, he's, he's uh, really wanting to meet you. Will, can I tell him? You will.
So he arrived. He was from India and he was over, uh,
Jack actually was a doctor in India. And so, um,
he was on holiday and that's how we met.
So within six months we were married and I moved over to
um, uh, I forgot my name again. Uh, no,
beside Thema Hall. Anyway, our house was there. Mm-hmm.
Dale al Coy, that was it. So,
um, just this and these things kept happening in my life, you know,
it was absolutely wonderful.
How is having an olive farm? That sounds so much fun.
Yeah, Jack was like that. I was same. I would try anything.
And he said to me when we were still in India, he said, when I retire,
he said, I want to be an olive farmer. And I said, oh,
what a nurse you thinking of that for. And he said,
I think it would be wonderful.
We'll get somebody in the mountains and we just have a wonderful time.
And we did. And see,
the only sad thing was that man, you know,
hurting his dog.
Yes. Jack has passed away.
Yes, yes.
Unfortunately he got Alzheimer's and uh,
and eventually had to be put into care because his be behavior was so bad.
And really and truly, he was such a wonderful, gentle,
well-mannered man. It was. He was just adorable.
I loved him to bits. So.
I'm so sorry. You.
Just, well, it, it's now again,
I have a feeling cuz things have happened and I still feel this with me.
You know, I feel, I feel I'm around in these times.
So now I'm living in Inverness in a small house that we got.
But for,
because of Jack's illness and it didn't have any steps
and stairs and things. It's just a bungalow. Yeah. And, um,
I love it here. We have quite a big garden and I enjoy it. When I had my stroke,
the doctor phoned the, the, oh,
the physician. He phoned the police and said,
this lady can't drive again. Could you have a word with her? And I,
he did it without even asking me. And people do have strokes, if they drive,
they automatically, they have by law got to tell the police about it. So,
you know, because it,
you could have another stroke and this time it would be more serious in the car.
Cause I had my car before, so I brought myself a tricycle.
And um, I just love it. It has a motor on it. Mm-hmm.
as a battery. And I can go anywhere I want to. And I,
and I've got, you know, a few friends who if want to go anywhere further,
then we will all go in the car and enjoy it. And, um,
she just said, open the door for the dog. Go on baby. What do you want?
Said, I want to go out in the garden. Come on in. Excuse me.
I'm just walking through the door to them out.
. It's all right.
And there's MACIs. She's coming too. Could you hear that? Yeah. ,
they're rush outside and if I want to call them in,
I have a bottle with stones in it, you know, plastic bottle.
And they makes kitchen noise. They're just coming straight away.
So they're funny. Anyway, he said,
I'm sure she's gone just to bark at other dogs that pass. She loves that.
You said that you have a recycling program and that you make jewelry.
The kids and Yes,
the kids and the adults and anything that can be recycled. I mean,
I'm sitting amongst them just now cuz I'm doing some,
and even I even paint stones with lovely messages on them.
And each one is a personal one, you know, for whoever I, I give it to.
And, um, oh,
I have dolls that the children have made and I use milk bottles and I,
I cut holes in it and then put a,
a hanger on the top and fill it with bird seeds and the birds come and peck
through the holes.
Oh, that's neat.
With the cool through the bottle.
And I've made little good little sticks through so they've got a per, you know,
and they can eat. Um, and there's lots of things like that. Many, many things.
And clothes. I recycled clothes.
What made you start doing all the recycling projects and the art projects?
Well and everything I did, my father was an artist and a musician.
And my mom also, she was very good at handcraft and she,
she, I was born in 1940 and I came through the second World war.
And we had, we were, we never wasted anything. Nobody did.
We had no big shops or anything like that.
Then we had a little village store that stopped milk from the dairy,
or we walked to the dairy to get our milk and we made our own bread.
And, um, just basic things and meat.
We were lucky. My dad, you know, we weren't poor,
but there were a lot of people that were. So we spent a lot of time,
um, just helping people. And my mom, I was only five, you know,
six at the end of the war. But my mom,
she was always helping someone, somebody,
there was Polish soldiers were in the village.
There's a big mansion house quite near our house. And,
um, the, I can't remember his name, Lord McLeod, I think it was.
Anyway,
he gave over the house for the injured prisoners from Poland.
So when they were really badly injured, they came there, you know,
to get better and recuperate. And they used to come into the village, you know,
if they were able to walk. And, and my mom eventually said to me, you know,
would you like to come and have some lunch and cup of tea or something? And oh,
they just loved it. And I can remember sitting, we had a long,
long dining table and um, they,
they used to come in these men and they were absolutely lovely, you know,
and my mom did all these bakings and things made, you couldn't,
you only got a certain amount of sugar, you know, in the months.
And it had to make do so my mom used to make baking using flour,
using fruit. And instead of using sugar, she would use that. So,
so many lessons I learned everything had to be recycled. Um,
if mom, our and my brother or sister, they were older. And then I had a twin,
but we didn't get new clothes.
My mom made them from the ones that the other had they'd grown out of.
And she made new clothes from us or any,
any other material that she gave her hands on. She would use it, you know, to,
to make nice clothes for us. And she knitted a lot.
I learned to knit when I was five years old and I was knitting cereal
sweaters by the time I was six. I loved it. And then I ended up,
I had a business called celly wounds. Celly is the Scottish name for the seal.
Mm-hmm. . And outside our house, there were the,
the river ran down and the sea there was near the sea.
And the seals used to come and sit in the bank of our house. You know,
just our bank went down into the river and the sea and they used to come
there and lie. And so I called it silky wools. And then I, I,
I was a designer and I did all these capes and they
were all knitted from the matching sets of tweeds.
My tweed was made in the brewer woolen mill. And that was where we lived.
And then that was then the wool.
We used to jumpers and scarves and socks.
I made Prince Charles's kilt stockings.
Oh my.
Gosh. And that was a big thrill for me. Yeah. That was a big thrill for me.
So it's amazing.
He stops when he is on his way up to the north of Scotland and he just
pops in in Venito. He pops in for a coffee and he's lovely.
He's now the king.
He actually hasn't been for two years because we also had this, um,
scare about the forgotten it, the Covid. We all had the scare about.
The Covid. Yes.
Had a Christmas card from him every year. He is a lovely man.
King Charles would pop by your house for coffee.
Yes, yes. It was lovely. I love that.
But I didn't tell people because he came, you know,
in Kognito because otherwise we would've had press everywhere and photographing
that. And so that's what happened. And he loved the dog.
absolutely loved him. Oh. But now he's, again, he's a senior citizen.
So, but I'm, I'm happy for him. They were very,
very sad and angry when Diana died.
You know, she was killed in a motor accident.
And I was angry at him for a while and then I realized that, that it wasn't,
you know, really, I dunno, I just don't blame either of them.
It happened and it was meant to happen. That was it. Mm.
And and there was nothing that anybody could do to sort it.
Ordinary people can do that. Nothing is even heard about it. But what.
Did you and Charles talk about?
I know he is big into recycling and saving the planet.
Yes. We spoke about that.
And also he used to walk along to the wood with me to take the dogs
and they adored him. That was lovely.
Cause we had the wood way at the back of the house. And, um,
he just, he was just a normal guy.
And he used to come in and we'd sit in the chat and, um,
discuss things on the internet and do it.
And I would show her everything I was recycling.
And he loved a teddy bear that I made out of an old fur coat.
And it was a teddy bear wearing a kilt.
That's so lovely. And you got to make Charles his socks.
Yes. His kilt stockings. Yes. Uhhuh.
So wonderful. Your life is extraordinary.
I know. It's very special. It's lovely. I've just been lucky, you know,
all the time. Things always seem to be okay if something bad happened,
we just got through with it and got on with it and that was it.
Yeah. You're one of the, uh, shining lights on the planet. And you know,
the thing is, is you clearly have a deep empathy for living creatures.
Thank.
You very much. I mean, I, we will see each other again.
. Take care, ed Byebye.
Okay. You too much love. Thank you. Bye bye.
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