Outrageously bold

Alison trained as a nursery nurse before qualifying as a midwife, a role she loved deeply. Caring for mothers and babies came naturally, but when she and Jack began raising their family – five sons in all – she chose to step back from full-time work. “Being a pastor’s wife and raising children was more than enough,” she says. Even so, caring remained a constant thread in her life. She helped children with additional needs at a nearby school, supported local nurseries, and gave her time wherever she saw a quiet need.

Poetry has accompanied Alison since her teenage years. She began writing at school and turned to poetry more seriously after her brother died of cancer when she was just 14. “I wrote a poem after he died,” she says. “And I just kept writing.” Her mother also enjoyed rhyming and wordplay, which helped nurture her early love of language.

That belief is evident in her poem ‘For Peter’, written for a friend she has made at Royd Court. Peter lives with significant hearing and sight loss and lost his wife to dementia two years ago. Despite this, Alison describes him as someone who brings lightness wherever he goes. “He loves life,” she says. “He teases people, especially the ladies, and he has such a generous, open spirit.”

The poem is inspired by Jenny Joseph’s poem ‘Warning’, best known for the line ‘When I am old, I shall wear purple’, and of which Peter is particularly fond. Alison often read it aloud to Peter and he delighted in it, especially because it had made his wife laugh. He has even requested for Alison to read it at his funeral. “So I promised I would,” she says.

Alison admires ‘Warning’ for its boldness and humour. “It gives you permission to be yourself,” she explains. “To enjoy life, even
when you’re old. Peter always laughed at the line about ‘learning to spit,’ so I wanted my poem to carry that same playful courage.”

When Alison shared her poem at a group gathering, Peter listened closely, chuckling at the humour and the affection behind her words. Later, he reflected simply, “I was surprised, I’d never had anyone write a poem about me before. It made me laugh a lot.”

Humour, Alison believes, is essential to daily life. “It’s hard getting old,” she says honestly. “But humour helps.” She sees laughter as a way of comforting one another and building connection. “We used to say to our boys, ‘I’m not laughing at you – I’m laughing towards you.’” It’s a principle she still lives by.