FROM NEWBURY WITH LOVE

Last night I read about the book FROM NEWBURY WITH LOVE on the Amnesty International UK website. It is about a 15 year corespondence between a Russian fanily and a family from Newbury in Berkshire during the cold war and started because of an Amnesty letter writing campaign. It was a heart moving story and made more real because we had lived in Newbury.
Because of it, I also wept for a man I have never met and never will. Over the years I have written hundreds of letters and sent many Christmas cards through Amnesty campaigns and getting any response is a very rare occurrence. Two years ago I sent a card to a prisoner in an African jail. it was returned with Prisoner Not Known stamped on it. The prisoner was reported to have been sent to that particular jail but then disappeared and no trace of him was found. The reality of FROM NEWBURY WITH LOVE hit home and it was as if I saw the PRISONER NOT KNOWN as a real person, I could imagine I could see his face, and I suddenly knew he was dead.
And I wept.
Not for me but for his wife, his children, his parents, his family and his friends and all those who loved him.
I also wept for the dark space that existed in the hearts of those who had killed him and denied him his life.
The work that people do for Amnesty at times can be a thankless one and the effects are sometimes a long time in coming or never. If I were to write every hour of every day I feel that I would be barely scraping the surface of the problem.
I know that the program Lost is a shallow thing in comparison to the lives that I learnt about through Amnesty but two characters in Lost have confirmed my belief that there is good in the hearts of most people no matter how deep it lies. Eco and Sayid both have pasts that show them as being not such nice people but they reached the bad place in their lives slowly and were able to change. The Amnesty letter writing campaigns are there to reach people so they can know there are other ways to do things. And Amnesty is a good thing because history shows it does reach people.

HEALTHY EATING UPDATE
I am now 11st 9lbs and I have a BMI of 23, Weight Watchers say that the lowest I can be in my healthy range is 9st 13lbs so that is my goal. I need a goal to work around, when I get to my target I will still check my weight to make sure that I don't lose or gain too much.
I plan on being slim again-like I said , the Mother-of-the-Bride has to be a size 12 or less.
Wish me luck!