Teenagers contd
Aside
As promised here is Claire’s story so far, courtesy of my school’s magazine.
Like Nansi Claire is always smiling and has a positive outlook on life. Since she was in year 9 Claire has had health problems as her joints dislocate and her skin tears and bruises easily. It was only when she was in Year11 that her rare condition was diagnosed as Ehlers- Danlos Syndrome.
An example of how she is affected: she had her appendix out 18 months ago, followed by another operation. The wound for this second operation still has not healed and Claire has to attend hospital in
Claire leads a very active life and has taken part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. She plays both the guitar and saxophone. She is a first- aider with the British Red Cross and a quarter- master with First Responders. Claire used to be admitted to hospital for significant periods of time during year 11, her final GCSE year. Nonetheless, in spite of the pain and her being in hospital, Claire achieved 10 and half GCSEs: 7 and a half at A* and 3 As. She received two prizes at Speech Day.
Neither girls complain and when Claire was hospitalized she insisted on doing school work and would sneak back into school when she was supposed to be recuperating.
The Diana Award was launched in April 2000 for students nominated by their school for showing outstanding qualities in overcoming adverse circumstances, selfless service to others and youth participation or volunteering.
I’m reminded of a song by Johnny Mercer we sang during the war:
You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene
(To illustrate his last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
Just when everything looked so dark)
Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No, do not mess with Mister In-Between
Do you hear me, hmm?
Next episode of Past Imperfect on Friday DV.
