Thought for the Week: Causes for celebration
Rachel Jackson reflects on the royal visit to Leicester
Last Thursday was a big day for Leicester. The Diamond Jubilee tour started in our city and, more particularly, on the campus of De Montfort University where I am a speech and language therapy student.
This royal visit felt like a big deal. The council printed 10,000 flags. Pretty much every manhole cover in the city centre was removed and drain inspected. The vice chancellor ended one update to staff and students: ‘God save the Queen!’ There was a buzz around the place – no doubt about it – and republican sentiment was nowhere to be heard in the formal rhetoric of the event.
But one of the many things I love about Leicester is its spirit of openness. On Thursday evening a student, Joe, was interviewed on BBC Radio 4. He wasn’t keen on the royals, he said, but he was proud of his university, and had joined the crowds to show that pride. ‘Good on you, Joe,’ I thought.
Last Thursday was also International Women’s Day. I spent it not on the streets of Leicester with the crowds, but on study placement at a day centre for people with severe dementia.
Like many other health and welfare services, this centre is going through change, its future uncertain. It is served by dedicated, expert staff. Paid workers have made sacrifices to keep the place open. Others are volunteers. Together they create a loving, cheerful and calm environment day in, day out for their service users, people who might otherwise go without meaningful companionship of any kind.
If you singled these day centre staff – all women – out for celebration, they would tell you not to be so ridiculous. But in my own mind I did celebrate them and I gave thanks for their work last Thursday. The world over is full of women who pay attention to the needs of others. A few are famous, many millions are not. A few are wealthy, many millions are not.
The women in that day centre do the sort of work that is hardly ever noticed in the media – or, if it is, then seldom for the right reasons. They are not idolised, or feted. But they have a quiet sense of the value of what they do: taking the hands of outsiders and drawing them into community.
This Thursday coming won’t be a big day for Leicester. Neither will it be International Women’s Day. But the day centre will be open, as usual, and the work done there is reason enough to give thanks.
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