When I Was Bad

Ruth HartleyApartheid, Family, Feminism, Human rights, Religion, South Africa, When I Was BadLeave a Comment

Wicked women Bridget and I are the same age and we were both ‘unmarried mothers’ a long time ago. Bridget became pregnant in Ireland at 17 years. She escaped to London but was sent home by a priest to the torture of the brutal Bessborough home, a Catholic institution for unmarried mothers. Her tragic story and the death of her […]

Photo Children

Ruth HartleyFamily, Journey, Photography2 Comments

I don’t change but the photos of my children grow younger all the time. My children are ageless too but their recorded images alter every year The photo children become thin or fat They wear braces or smiles, spectacles or scowls. Their hair is straight or curled, but in their present flesh they are constant. My heart holds them so, […]

All the world’s a wedding

Ruth HartleyFamily13 Comments

What is a Marriage? Marriage- a formal agreement between two people – the ceremony in which this agreement is made – the state of being married. Wedding – a marriage ceremony. Women and men are equal in law and in marriage. “Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time,  […]