These words were written by Craig, Janet Hosier’s son to be read out at the 30th Birthday Celebration service. We are sharing them now…
“I’m trying to imagine what Mum would say to you if she were here right now, but I’m struggling.
Instead I’m remembering the time, a long way back when New Hope was just starting out, when Mum decided that she would open up our home and invite some of the men she called “the boys” around. I liked those days, and so did my friends. If we came home from school and saw bottles of cider lined up outside the front door, we knew that meant that Dublin John, Tommy Busby, Billy the Glue and Pete Floyd would be inside. They’d be sitting at the kitchen table, smoking roll-ups and drinking tea while Mum opened the windows and fussed by the sink. My friends and I would take turns to ask all the typical questions that any sixteen year old would want to know. What’s it like in prison? How do you roll a joint? Is it easy to steal a car?
It was all kinds of wrong, but Mum would just laugh, say “oh boys!” and ask if anyone wanted more tea.
There were so many other things about those early days that wouldn’t be standard practice for New Hope today. Like Mum and I going out late at night to visit one of the men in his bedsit when he was going through a hard time. Or Mum serving non-alcoholic beer at summer barbeques and telling the guys “you see, you don’t need alcohol, do you?”
It’s right that New Hope has changed. It’s right that you’ve got policies and procedures in place to protect everyone involved. It’s right that you have dedicated yourselves to learning how to get better at helping. And it’s right that as a result, New Hope has been recognised for the great work that you have done and the lives that you have changed.
But maybe it’s ok not to be perfect. Maybe it’s ok to know less today than you will tomorrow. Maybe it’s ok to feel the need to have to adapt to a changing landscape.
By her own admission, Mum got a fair few things wrong in life. But she knew this: that treating everyone with love and kindness, offering respect and dignity, sharing time and resources, could never be wrong. It could only ever be right.
Maybe that’s what she’d say if she were here today.
That, and thank you.”
Craig Borlase – son of the late Janet Hosier