Jacqueline McDonnell

A bit of an off-the-wall entry today. There is a connection though.
Jacqui McDonnell is a lady with a story to tell. She worked in advertising in London and New York in her hey day. Her husband Dennis died in 2002 and she has recently launched a book on her experiences since his death, called "The Wacky World of Widowhood". It's a fascinating book because of Jacqui's inspirational writing, but also for Gerry and I, to read about Dennis and learn more about this wonderful person, whom we knew briefly.
Dennis composed our water tower brochure and that was no mean task. Gerry had prepared a precis for an advertising brochure for our "restaurant" and struggled to document the concept as well as keep it brief. A good friend Jim Gardiner read it through and said he was asleep by page 2. Hmmmm. At last we have something that Gerry is not good at!
The water tower restaurant is not really a restaurant. Here is Dennis's interpretation
This is not a traditional restaurant.You book me, and the place, for lunch and/or dinner. You bring
family and friends; or a team of colleagues from work; or some selected clients. (Seminars seem to
work very well here.).
The brochure can be downloaded if you want to read more.
http://www.gerrygoldwyre.co.uk/pdfs/GerryRestaurant.pdf
I remember when I gave this brochure to a training manager at a course in Dunblane on self awareness. She was so impressed with the text and said to me it was written from the heart and so different to the usual corporate stuff that she read.
Currently the details on our brochure are no longer accurate since we have built RP9 in the woodland garden. The brochure still shows the old gazebo which has been demolished. A new web site and details should be completed by Spring next year all being well. Would have loved Dennis to contribute to that but I know that a lot of his original text will be re used. So that's nice.

Getting back to Jacqui's book, clearly there was a lot more to Dennis than we knew from his work on our brochure and I feel sad that we didn't know him better. Read her book and I promise you will enjoy it. It is not a sad tale of widowhood but a inspirational read about life, widowhood and taking a look at yourself. Here is a verse from Widows' Weeds, one of my favourite poems from the book.

"The people-crows wait,
solemn faces, sighs and tears.
High black heels descend.
A Jackie Kennedy dress and coat,
shocking pink buttons,
shocking pink pill box hat.
Smoke grey eyes peering from beneath
a frail lace curtain,
a bold red mouth,
bright red nails under black lace mittens.
As the whispers start to grow,
I hear my husband in my heart -
that's my girl!"

 My other favourite is Mussels and Buses but you need to buy the book to read it yourself.

You can purchase a copy via this web site.

http://www.yellowmagnoliapress.co.uk/

The book that it can also be bought from Amazon through Durnick Books.

The cover of Jacqui's book.