I recall when I was a Probation Officer, every month or two, we would have a supervisory session with our Senior Officer. The ultimate purpose of this monthly meeting was to check out how one was coping in the job and to offer the opportunity to discuss any cases which were presenting difficulty or to deal with any other pressing matters. During such monthly supervision sessions, whenever things were right on the home front with my wife, children, parents or other family members, then I always felt things to be right on the work front, and vice versa. In short, the welfare of my family controlled my prevailing happiness and contentment during my daily life; it always did and always will! I always found that my quality of life involved finding a happy balance between work, friends, leisure activities, interests, and most importantly, family.
A happy child is one where the enduring memory into adulthood is of a family where you come as you are, stay as long as you can, and where the motto above the fireplace reads, 'We're all family here; there is no seating plan'. Indeed, I'd have to say that my own family upbringing, and especially my relationship with my mother never once left me feeling unloved, lacking in confidence or unworthy. Indeed, I'd go as far as to say that mum exuded love from every pore of her being. She automatically loved all others with whom she came into contact without ever once stopping to inquire whether or not they were worthy of her affection. Our parents never mollycoddled us; dad was often strict and mum always said it as it was while having the wisdom to know when best to leave certain things unsaid. Between our parents, they forged the Forde Family for what we are today. Dad toughened up his seven children so that we would possess the strength of character to face an often cruel and heartless world, while mum saw it as her role to raise her children under a constant umbrella of love and to teach us those things that will make the world a little less cruel and heartless. Today, when I think of love, compassion, buckets of hope and belief in one's fellow man, I instantly think of mum. She never spoke bad of another or expressed envy towards what they had materially and she didn't. It was as if she was always too busy working on her own family grass to notice if anyone else on the estate was greener. She knew that the tragedy of one's life wasn't death, but what goodness we let die inside us by lack of use in our everyday life.
Overall, our parents taught us that the most important work that every man, woman or child, and every parent, spouse, brother or sister shall ever do will be within the walls of their own home. I include below, a poem I have written about 'Family'.
'We are Family': Copyright William Forde: August 2018.
"Sometimes I think the time is now, but it's really then;
and the place is here, not there, and where is when.
Sometimes I open my mouth and my mother comes pouring out.
Then when I reply, it is my father's voice I hear from way on high.
I often walk in my father's footsteps and speak his word.
I sometimes have his angry feelings and make still emotions stirred.
I am never alone in my world; how could I be?
As long as my family remains a part of me,
they influence every thought, word and deed and all I see.
My happiness was always there,
but without close family, parents, brothers, sisters, wife and children,
life would be forever bare.
I am one and I am me, I am also you, and I am we.
We are many, we are family."
William Forde: Copyright: August 16th, 2018.