50 Word Non-Fiction: Hope – Batch 2

Every week, we publish the latest 50 Word Non-Fiction stories of Hope. Read this week's pieces below!

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Wilder, Wonder, Wander - these words inked on my skin. Son, I've accepted voluntary redundancy. It was necessary; I was losing myself. After 27 years, I'm off, but where to and as what? I am my own new adventure, just like you over in Oz! Courage has given us freedom!

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Without hope, I wouldn’t be here. I had childhood cancer. It was aggressive and the odds were stacked against me. At 11, I had to face challenges and make choices that would impact the rest of my life. It was hope of a better future that got me through it.

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I cannot grasp one thought, pin it down, turn it over. Fireworks in my head, lead in my stomach, my feet are frozen. Something about feathers almost had it, deep breaths. Door opens, acrid antiseptic smell follows, white coat flaps, the serious grey eye. They are smiling, they warm me.

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Every morning a silhouette hovered in front of her door. A woman with hair like spun moonlight meticulously placed a single fresh flower carefully through her letterbox. This gave her hope that one day a curious hand might reach out, not with a flower but the hand of friendship.

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What we'd hoped for us was truncated. I'm left to find the way to what you'd hoped for me by myself. In the silent solitude of my studio I hear you encouraging and cajoling, forever my number one fan.

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Helicopter day. The day that I was on the cusp of avoiding, overcome with anxiety about another new student placement to attend. But the care and kindness the paramedics showed me that day, culminating in an ad hoc trip in the air ambulance, reminded me not to avoid living life.

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Moving from one river Aire, Yorkshire to another river Ayr in Ayrshire, relocating gave me more than I had ever hoped for. My mum was Scottish, so I was halfway there, and here I’ll stay with family nearby, meeting my soulmate, a job I love and landscapes to inspire me.

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I'm writing letters now as they can't automaticaly go in a waste bin without you seeing it.

If you would only tell me why I don't exist anymore it might help me understand.

Now stamped and posted it just asks how you are and that love is still here. x

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Morning light streamed in through the window, another day dawned. In the midst of our chaotic world, I heard birdsong, a tiny wren was singing  its heart out! 

I watched in wonderment

And as the sun broke through and the pink blossom shone, the morning spoke of hope.

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John knew that to hope for something you have to give hope to another, so as he dropped his winning lottery ticket into the buskers hat, he hoped that Val McDermid would sign his book he hoped to win via a Scottish Book Trust competition, one lives in hope eh?