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This was my wedding bouquet. Can you spot what’s at the heart of it?
It seems apt to share its story on this #InternationalNursesDay
It seems apt to share its story on this #InternationalNursesDay
It holds all kinds of treasures & trinkets including:
Offcuts from my wedding dress
The fabric from my husband’s tie
Bows from my favourite pair of shoes from when I was 6 (yes, I kept them...)
A brooch from my Great Aunt Trixie
A cufflink from my grandfather
Offcuts from my wedding dressThe fabric from my husband’s tieBows from my favourite pair of shoes from when I was 6 (yes, I kept them...)A brooch from my Great Aunt TrixieA cufflink from my grandfather
A dress stud from my great grandfather A ceramic rose from my brotherAn earring from my grandmother 
Lucky whiskers from my cat and my mums cat (no, really, there are whiskers in it)All those odd broken bits and bobs that would otherwise have had no home
And at the heart of it, this.
My mum’s treasured nursing badge.
She, Lesley Mary Schweder, trained at @RoyalLondonHosp - she’s the one looking pensive in the bush! She then community nursed in the East End before leaving to be a ward sister in Ireland.
My mum’s treasured nursing badge.
She, Lesley Mary Schweder, trained at @RoyalLondonHosp - she’s the one looking pensive in the bush! She then community nursed in the East End before leaving to be a ward sister in Ireland.
My mum was too poorly to come to my wedding in 2009. I had no family there in the end.
I clutched my bouquet knowing I wasn’t alone as I walked the aisle, alone.
Carrying mum - and her kindness & compassion, the hallmarks of nursing - with me.
I clutched my bouquet knowing I wasn’t alone as I walked the aisle, alone.
Carrying mum - and her kindness & compassion, the hallmarks of nursing - with me.
The bouquet now stands in my hallway.
It makes me smile every day as it’s filled with objects of joy from the past.
And every time I find a whisker I tuck it in. It’s probably now half cat.
And, one day, it will all belong to my daughter.
It makes me smile every day as it’s filled with objects of joy from the past.
And every time I find a whisker I tuck it in. It’s probably now half cat.
And, one day, it will all belong to my daughter.
