Ruth's Story

Ruth Spencer, who was recently a patient in our Inpatient Unit, kindly agreed to share her story with us to help raise awareness of the work of the hospice.  

“People tell me I’ve had an interesting life, but I think that our lives are what we make them and we choose the paths we take.  How interesting our lives are depends upon the friends we meet along the way and the relationships we have.  We are put on this earth to connect with other people and that’s the thing that has always been most important to me.      

As a child we moved house many times. It was the 1930s and there was a terrible shortage of work.  My father went wherever there was a job, and we went with him. After the war I was offered a job as a clerical assistant in a school in New Romney.  Nowadays the job title would be, ‘school secretary’.  Three previous applicants had turned it down because the pay was so poor, but I took it on.  

After three or four years I moved to the glorious, wonderful boys’ school called Temple School which was next to one of the most deprived areas of the Medway Towns. I loved it there. I’ve kept one of those long photographs of all the boys in the school – up to 800 of them. The story goes that one of the boys at one end of the photo ran around the back to appear at the other end as well.     

I was at Temple School for 40 years and retired on my 60^th birthday in 1990. At the same time, I have always been a writer. The first piece I ever got paid for was a cartoon in a magazine called Lilliput. I got seven and sixpence for that.     

I mainly wrote short stories and articles - never full-length novels, because I loved saying as much as possible in as few words as possible. I sold my last short story when I was 90, and when I was 93 some of my poetry was printed in the Daily Mail - although it was doggerel, in my view.   

Then I became ill and to add to that, my sight went too.  That put the kybosh on everything. I've never been still until now.  Before, there were never enough hours in the day but now I find it impossible to measure time.  Every day feels like eternity. 

I have no family, but I don’t regard myself as family-less because there are three people who are my very nearest and dearest.  To me they are my nieces and my nephew. The first week I was in hospital I counted 19 visitors. I’m grateful to still have lots of friends.  

When I found out I was coming to the hospice, I was thankful. I visited someone here once and I remembered the feeling of it and seeing the squirrels outside. The thing that has impressed me most about the hospice is the kindness.  To begin with I found it emotionally overwhelming because of the intensity of the loving care that was shown to me.  

The care I’ve received here has been unsurpassed.  I have nothing but praise.  It’s wonderful. Faultless. Care with a capital ‘C’.  The hospice is one of the most beautiful places on earth. 

I don’t know what the future holds for me now, but I’ve had 94 years of a wonderful life.  Such fun, such friends, such love, such affection.  I'm ready to go now, whenever the time comes.”  

Thank you Ruth for sharing your story with us.