Gloriously Ordinary Sundays - 20th April 2025

As the third and final part of my musings on friendships and connections over the last few weeks, I wanted to share a quick story. I hope it will put a smile on your face as we get back into real life after the long weekend.

I’ve been focusing a lot on the importance of remembering our role in supporting and nurturing connections when we hold paid roles, but the joy is that all of us human beings have the gift of creating and supporting connections. Ciaran and The Girl did a fantastic job of this a few years ago.

I’ve already said that several of my team of personal assistants were fantastic at seeking out connections where others might not see them. Katie is one of those people – always happy to strike up a friendship on a bus, to ask a shopkeeper if they’ve ever considered being a PA or to gently encourage The Girl when she’s looking longingly at another girl and doesn’t quite know how to say hello. As an aside, Katie was working in a boatyard before she came to us – isn’t that fab?!

The irony was that Katie could be a bit crap with connections in her own life. She would be the first to admit a series of not-great relationships.

Katie worked for me from not long after we moved down south in 2015 and as things got more complicated at home, she helped me build up a fabulous team of PAs around Ciaran and The Girl, and also my mum. In 2019 Charley joined the team. She was studying to be a teacher, has a passion for books and fitted into the team like a dream.

I was usually quite good at noticing the dynamics among my team, but I completely missed Katie and Charley falling for each other. I do remember Katie at one point saying to me, ‘Oh Tricia, I like her so much’, assuming it wasn’t reciprocated. I’ll spare you the gory details for both their sakes, but fast forward to June last year and here they are on their wedding day. Ciaran was the ring bearer and did his job beautifully.

So, it’s not always about us clumsily working out in our various paid roles how we value and support connections. Sometimes we get to remember that Test Four is for all of us.

PS. Have you heard about 'Getting Curious About Creating Gloriously Ordinary Lives' training course? It's a 5-session course where you'll learn how to create Gloriously Ordinary Lives, reflect on current support practices, understand your role, and develop a clear action plan for making a difference. The course is for everyone and starts in June.

PPS. Did you see? The Gloriously Ordinary Sundays Podcast episode 10 is here. I chat with Sam Clark, Chief Executive of ⁠Learning Disability England⁠. We talk about the importance of people opening their own front doors as we share the new campaign - I Open My Own Front Door, Do You? - by Gloriously Ordinary Lives in partnership with Learning Disability England.