Why the steep road is less travelled

Shaun is in his mid 50’s, a successful businessman and consultant. He’s also one of my Spoon by Spoon interviewees. In recent years he feels he’s lost his way a bit in his career and when we caught up months ago, he was in a reflective mood.

Shaun shared lots of stories about his life. For example, he told me about his grandmother, Mary, and how he was incredibly fond of her. She was originally from Carricou, an island near Grenada. As Shaun put it “Carricou is a speck of an island. If you’re flying over in a plane, you’d miss it if you sneezed!”

Mary was one of the Windrush generation, arriving in the UK in the late 1950s. She survived intolerance and prejudice when she first lived in London’s Notting Hill, eventually settling in a terraced house in Ealing. For Shaun it was a place “that became the lighthouse for our family and others who were touched by her calm and wisdom.” Mary passed away many years ago and he recalls that over 150 people came to her funeral. She was much loved.

Decades later, Shaun still remembers a painting in Mary’s front room, a pristine place that was set aside for visitors. Where the back room was always noisy and full of chatting people, the front room offered Shaun some peace and quiet. “I would slip away to study the painting.” To this day Shaun can recall the picture vividly. He describes it to me…