Thank you for visiting my website. Of the five wonderful women featured on this website, one is my dear Mum and the remaining four are some of my closest friends. Our pre-existing close relationship and trust has played a vital part both during the actual interviews and in the ongoing co-operation received in bringing together these pages.

I am eternally grateful to Julie, Zoe, Jean, Claire and Catherine for giving up their precious time and sharing with me their experiences, some happy and some, incredibly painful to recall.

Here are just some of the interesting issues that were raised during our interviews:

We have talked about feelings of guilt; guilt for leaving work early due to childcare committments and guilt for being at home and not doing enough housework!

Of the two women whose own mothers worked while they were growing up, they developed close bonds with their maternal grandmothers who were their main carers.

The main conclusion drawn by all interviewees was that they all felt the need to be recognised and praised for what they do and for their achievements.

As anticipated, all women agreed that they felt they had little time for leisure activities for them as individuals. However, the overall feeling was that they are all very happy and content with their lives and given the choice, would not wish to swap them!

I have endeavoured to represent these life stories as accurately as possible. However, there have been obvious limitations which have necessitated considerable editing of the transcripts in order for them to remain workable within the context and space on these web pages. Hence, I hope I will be forgiven for any inadvertent omissions.

I hope you will have gained much enjoyment from viewing this web site as I have had in constructing it.

May 2004.

 

Acknowledgements:

'Bulletin' Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, Issue 398, December 2003. (see Annabel Harwood Trust picture under Catherine on Work and Leisure section).

'Splash' - Official Newsletter of Likisma Presentations Ltd. Issue 12, 2003. (see Likisma picture under Julie on Work and Leisure section).

 

 

 

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