In Our Own Write – September/October 2026

Our topic today was “It just happened “ and we had a diverse interpretation of the phrase.

1. A semi- biographical account of a 17 year old girl invited to attend her boyfriend’s sister’s wedding in the days of miniskirts. Her mother vetoed the contents of her wardrobe as being inappropriate and treated her to a new outfit. Unfortunately, this was obtained from a shop more suited to more mature ladies and although the material was a Laura Ashley print it was floor length with an abundance of frills and lace (we were shown a photo!). Thoughts of hiding some of the frills under her long hair came to nothing when her well- meaning mother arranged for her to have an elaborate upswept hairstyle with curls.
   The wedding went well and they were given a large piece of Black Forest gateau to take home. It just so happened that she tripped and fell face down whilst entering her home smearing cake and cream all over the dress rendering it unwearable ever again, although she was not exactly heartbroken about it.

2. Two friends dressed up for an outing to a tearoom and after their Prosecco and afternoon tea left to explore the nearby shops. A sudden shower of rain sent them running into the nearest shop which they had never been into before. It was an old-fashioned emporium stocking everything from mothballs to pieces of china. Annie, one of the ladies, spotted a bottle of castor oil that she had found difficult to find elsewhere. En route to collect it the strap of a shoulder bag got tangled up with a display of china which proceeded to smash to the floor also knocking over a display of cleaning products.
   The noise brought the elderly Indian owner out from the rear of the shop closely followed by his wife. They were evidently horrified at the mess and his wife, ever practical, put the Closed sign up and returned to start clearing up the mess. The two friends with abject apologies insisted on helping to clean up the mess (although they managed to damage their silk dresses. The elderly Indian lady then produced cups of tea for the four of them. Offers by the friends to pay for all the damage caused were met with a refusal as it was an accident and “it  just happened”.

3. A four year old girl went to stay with her grandmother for the weekend. She loved baking with her gran although the chocolate cake became rather diminished in size by all the sampling of the mixture. The jammy biscuits had to be squished by hand and were of varying shapes and who cared if half the strawberry jam got in her hair. She was so happy to be with her most favourite person in the whole wide world.
   When it was time to do the washing up whilst her gran popped to the loo the little girl thought that she would be very helpful and wash her gran’s favourite bowl that her recently deceased grandpa had bought many years ago. A very tearful child sobbed that “It just happened“as she showed her gran the two broken pieces of the bowl.
   A quick-thinking gran hugged the trembling child and told her that the Japanese do something called Kintsugi which says that mended china can be more beautiful than the original. She just didn’t mention that this method usually involved gold leaf.
   So, replete with chocolate cake and jammy biscuits they carried out the repair with superglue and lots of love with the little girl declaring that it was the most bootiful bowl ever.

4. A mother recollects her daughter aged 13 forecasting that she would become a doctor, get married and have three children, even giving them names. She instead becomes a paramedic on board a cruise ship and whilst Face Timing her mother it became obvious that she had met that special someone who would indeed become her husband.
   They do not have three children as yet but welcomed their first child two weeks ago, and no, they haven’t used one of the names. She may not have planned to meet someone on board but sometimes these things just happen.

5. It just happened. She didn’t mean to become a collector but her childhood love of pebbles, milk bottle tops and marbles started a lifetime of collecting. She did not however repeat her decision to collect mice when the two rapidly turned into 64 and she had to beg the local pet shop to find them homes.
   Adulthood saw cigarette cards, Wade whimsies, powder compacts and chocolate boxes joining the collections. You name it, she collected it. A decision to collect 20p coins necessitated buying a glass pig money box which wasn’t suitable to remove any coins from. The only way was to smash the pig but even though times were occasionally lean the pig remained intact. However, it made good its escape whilst moving house to Devon and was never seen again.
   Most of the collections remain intact but what will happen when their owner is up in Heaven no doubt collecting clouds, who knows?

6. This story was called The Full Moon.
   A young woman was sitting cross- legged on the beach staring up at the moon. She had always had an affinity with the moon and now she felt that she knew why. Her training as a psychotherapist had required her to undergo regression therapy and took her back in time to 1850s Nebraska.
   She saw herself as a young child, a member of the Lakota tribe. Her father used to hold her up to venerate the moon. Her current love of the great outdoors and camping could be due to the way she had had to live off the land. Her life had been cut short by a fever at the age of 13.
   Other instances in her life now compounded her affinity with the moon and in particular, the Native American people. She had never forgotten the profound effect a poster of Sitting Bull had had on her some years ago. Was it all down to her past life?

Our next meeting is on the 12th October. The topic is “When I look back“.

Travina White, convenor