Our sister-in-law Penny was born in 1942 and grew up in a lovely town called Upminster which is in the southeast of Essex. A very rural place to live in those days, in the midst of beautiful Essex countryside and yet with all of the necessary shops including many people’s favourite – Woolworths.  And there was also in those days, a welcoming shop named the Rooms Stores Café where they sold tea and fancy cakes on Saturday afternoons.

In 1946 when Penny was 4 years old, the town was about to enter the history books as Upminster was anticipating the arrival of the, then King. He was to pass by near to where Penny lived by Upminster Bridge, with her family including older brothers Pete, Albert and John, and sister Wendy. King George VI with his wife Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, was to pass by in a carriage as part of the Victory Celebrations following the end of World War II.

Penny, recalls her older siblings all attending the street party that had been organised as part of those celebrations and remembers that day very well
even now, more than seventy years later.

But there is coming a day for us all when time will have completely passed us by, and we will come face to face with death itself. Some people do not like to think of death, but instead put it out of their minds.

But this is to ‘bury your head in the sand’ imagining that by doing this we will put off that day from arriving. But the Bible makes it quite clear that:

“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
(Hebrews 9:27,28)

The first part of this scripture appears to sound a warning – and it does!
We will all be held responsible for our lives and will be judged accordingly.