It was ShoestringUSA's birthday on Friday, he is celebrating by climbing Mount Washington, just to check that he still can now that he has said goodbye to his twenties !
Reflecting back on him being born in a little hospital in Edinburgh with a great view of Arthur's Seat it is good to reflect on how much has changed but also how much that is good has endured over that time.
The hospital is gone and so are many like it, small community based facilities that now cost too much to run and cannot guarantee the same standard of care as the bigger hospitals. But no matter what the size of the institution it is the people who work in it that matter and the same kindness and ability to be there for you are shown by the health service staff as was the case thirty years ago.
Thirty years ago we got a lift home from the hospital with a borrowed car seat for the baby. Lots of people used public transport in the city and that is still true today, even the tram system which got off to such a rocky start is now considered part of the Edinburgh landscape.
I was still at university when ShoestringUSA was born and he was born in a hospital named after one of the first female doctors in Scotland. Opportunities for women are still being made around the globe and I hope that over the next thirty years the issue of gender will become one that becomes less important as full equality for all is achieved.
When ShoestringUSA was born all his grandparents were still alive, now two of them have gone and the two that are left are likely to live in to their nineties and beyond. It is great that he still has two here to rely on and two gone before to set him a good example of loving hard work. The grandparent/grandchild bond remains a special one and I know that it is cherished on both sides. Today I saw some wonderful pictures from a pre-school that had been established inside a home for frail seniors and I hope that more such innovative projects will be established over the next thirty years so that mixing between all ages continues to happen to everyone's benefit.
Most of all I hope that the limitless potential that a new life represents continues to be just as special to today's new parents as I was to Mr Shoestring and 1 thirty years ago.
Enjoy your day and hug your loved ones !
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