Eye - 4 November 2022
The sunshine pages return! - and remembering some of the greatest hits.
The sunshine pages return!
Eye is back Friends – it’s been a long time coming, but we’re hoping you’ve missed Eye as much as Eye has missed you!
For Friends who have started subscribing since these canary-yellow pages last appeared, this may not make much sense. For you, and Friends who may need a reminder, let me set the scene.
‘Q-Eye’ was a look at the Quaker world through a lighter lens. A place for limericks, quirky quotes, photos, community activities, and stories that may not have a home elsewhere in the magazine.
Eye was where we always tried to make readers smile.
Where did it go?
This is where I step out from my Eye persona and introduce you to the person behind the pen.
My name is Elinor Smallman, and I am the production and office manager at the Friend. It was a joyous part of my job to rustle up this page for many years.
In 2020 I developed a pulmonary embolism. This wasn’t my first experience of blood clots but it was the worst, and my recovery took longer than I expected.
My return to full-time hours was gradual, and putting together the Eye page was a casualty.
Some people may remember a brief return in early 2021, when my creative juices started to flow again. But then more C-words entered my family’s life, as my mother was diagnosed with cancer and I became her carer.
I feel truly blessed to be part of the Friend family. The team rallied round and supported us while we navigated surgery and treatments during lockdowns and Covid waves.
Thankfully my mother and I are both in a better place health-wise now, although life is unlikely to ever go fully back to the ‘normal’ we knew.
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