Always smiling, Lydia was a beautiful baby with curly blonde hair, a plump pink face and huge serene blue eyes. She was slow in learning to speak, slow in learning to walk. Her mother was worried about her but her father said, "Lydia is just taking her time. Leave her be."

As she grew up, Lydia was friendly to all but never had any special friends. As a teenager, unlike most of the other girls in her class, she never had a boyfriend. She had little interest in sports and studies either. Her mother was worried about her but her father said, "Lydia is just taking her time. Leave her be."

Lydia loved animals and flowers, walking in the rain and helping people. Her teachers did not know what to make of her. "She seems to be bright," Lydia's teacher said to her parents on a school open evening, "but it's as if her mind's on higher things than geography or physics."

When she was sixteen she left school and got a job as a waitress in a hotel in the seaside town where she lived. She was an attractive and ever-smiling worker and was popular with all the guests, making a lot of tips. Her only social activity was going to church with her parents on Sunday mornings.

One Sunday after the church service, the minister of the Baptist church took her aside and asked her if she was ready to be baptised. "No thank you sir," she answered.

"Don't you want to be saved?" he asked, incredulously.

"No," she answered.

"Why not ?" he asked.

"Because I want to be with the ones who are not saved."

She never went to church after that but went for long walks by the sea instead.

One Sunday morning on her walk she decided to go to see the fortune-teller at the end of the pier. "Crystal, cards or hand ?" asked the clairvoyant, a large Romany lady sitting in the shadows in an old armchair in the corner of the room.

"I don't mind," answered Lydia, sitting down.

The fortune-teller took Lydia's hand and peered intently at the crystal on the table in front of her. All she could see was a beautiful pink heart filling the crystal.

"A pink heart. I've never seen this before," she told Lydia. "You have obviously been born to help the world. You are one of the white sisterhood. Now go. I have nothing else to tell you. Now go."

"Thank you," said Lydia, and left.

When Lydia was eighteen, her grandfather came to live with her and her parents and her older sister, Veronica. He was in his mid seventies and very unwell. It was Lydia who spent the most time with him, sometimes playing cards, sometimes watching television, and mostly just talking.

"I'm dying," he said to her one evening. Lydia said nothing but smiled back at him.

"I'm afraid," he said.

"Why?" Lydia asked.

"I'm afraid of becoming nothing. I'm afraid of the darkness beyond."

Lydia held him in her arms and kissed the side of his face. A deep peace came over him. "There's nothing to be afraid of," she said. He looked at her with wonder. She giggled.

"I worry about you, Lydia," said her mother one day when they were preparing the meal. "A girl of your age should be going out with boys. You should have hobbies and sports too. Dancing, tennis, swimming. Look at Veronica. She's always out. You don't even come to church with us any more."

"I'm all right mum," answered Lydia and kissed her.

Veronica got married just after Lydia's twentieth birthday. Lydia's grandfather died soon afterwards so there were now just Lydia and her mother and father in the house so Lydia felt a bit lonely. She realised she would like a baby. Her mother laughed when Lydia told her what she wanted.

"You are a funny one," she said. "You will need to find a man if you want to have a baby, preferably one who will marry you!" Lydia nodded.

Lydia started going out with a young man at work called Tim. He was a trainee hotel manager, handsome, witty and ambitious. After six months later, Tim asked Lydia to marry him and she answered, "of course." They got married in a registry office in February and ten months later, at Christmas, Lydia told Tim she was expecting a baby. He had mixed feelings about becoming a parent but she was in seventh heaven. Frank was born the next July. He was a beautiful baby with blonde curls and big blue eyes just like Lydia.

Tim started going out with his mates more and more often after Frank's birth and often came home drunk. One night when he got home late he got into a rage about the meal in the oven having gone cold and ended up hitting Lydia and giving her a black eye. Lydia and Frank moved into her parents' house shortly after that.

Lydia started going to meetings of a local peace group. Sometimes they wrote letters. Sometimes they prayed. Sometimes they even sang and danced. One Saturday they went to London and held a peace vigil outside the American embassy protesting about the bombing of Bosnia. Lydia sang a peace song called "Peace In Our World". She had a beautiful voice. Television cameras were there covering the demonstration and pictures of her singing were broadcast on the main news that evening.

The following Thursday evening there was a visitor to Lydia's house asking to see her. It was a plain-clothed police woman. When they were alone, the officer told Lydia that the British government had concerns about demonstrations against the foreign policy of the USA, an important ally of the UK.

"This is just a friendly conversation you understand," she said. "Just a word of warning if you like. There could be consequences."

"But I was just singing," said Lydia.

"I know," said the police officer. "But think about it. You wouldn't want to be parted from Frank, would you?"

"What do you mean?" asked Lydia, horrified. "How could I be parted from him? He's only a baby."

"Lydia, we have powers," said the officer. "Social services could find you to be an unfit mother and Frank could be put into care."

"No," said Lydia. "You couldn't do that."

"Oh yes we could," said the officer. "Think about it." The police woman left.

Lydia was not prepared to take that risk. She stopped going to the peace group and poured all her love and hopes into Frank instead. Frank grew up to be a brilliant student with both his father's ambition to succeed and his mother's passion for peace and love. He went to university to study law and became a successful barrister before deciding to go into parliament. At the second attempt Frank was returned as Labour M.P for a safe seat in the midlands. When the count was announced, he stood up to thank the party workers for their work and the voters of the constituency for supporting him.

"Finally and most importantly," he said, "I want to thank my mother without whom I would not be standing in front of you now as your MP. I look forward to serving all the members of this constituency and primarily I wish to dedicate my work as your member of parliament to peace in our world."

I have enjoyed sharing this story with you and look forward to sharing more poems and stories in the future.

~David Brown of Christchurch, England~
Copyright © October 2002