Eileen - No Longer Just A Number: The Story Of A Barnardo's Girl

By Helen R Gale

Doris Eileen Evans was given away by her mother at the age of 3 months due to the social deprivation prevailing in post second world war London. Taken in by the children's charity, Barnardo's, she received plenty of discipline, not much education as we know it today, and even less love. However, Eileen had much love to give and, as she grew, fou

• Language: English
• Publisher: Helen Gale
• Release date: Jan 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781802279368

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Eileen – No Longer Just A Number

Eileen – No Longer Just A Number

The Story of a Barnardo’s Girl

Helen R. Gale

Copyright 2022 by Helen R. Gale

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner, except for the use of quotations in a book review.

For more information address: [e-mail]

FIRST EDITION

978-1-80227-935-1 (Paperback)

978-1-80227-936-8 (eBook)

When He Cometh

When He cometh, when He cometh

To make up His jewels,

All His jewels, precious jewels,

His loved and His own:

Refrain:

Like the stars of the morning,

His bright crown adorning,

They shall shine in their beauty,

Bright gems for His crown.

He will gather, He will gather

The gems for His kingdom;

All the pure ones, all the bright ones

His loved and His own. (Refrain)

Little children, little children,

Who love their Redeemer,

Are the jewels, precious jewels,

His loved and His own. (Refrain)

Author: William Cushing (1856)

Contents

Introduction

Given Away

Off to the Palace and Beyond

No Longer Alone

Changes Afoot

Good Seeds Sown

Never Too Old!

Enviable Encounters

I) Easter 2001 – The most precious Easter I can ever remember!

II) June 2001 – No Longer Just a Number

III) Jesus was waiting

Encounters of a different kind

Not the End!

In Remembrance

Some of the Tributes Received

Introduction

Did you notice that little old lady who just passed us?

No. Which one? Where?

The one in red.

Why? What about her?

Oh, nothing special, but I often see her, and she’s always dressed in red.

Oh, right…. what time did you say the bus is due?

This short dialogue could easily have referred to one officially called Doris Evans, known to us by her middle name Eileen. A simple soul and one that some considered insignificant and ‘nothing special’. I thought I knew her well – after all, she’d been part of our family for over 70 years. Yet, while making arrangements for her funeral and sorting out her personal affairs, my sister and I discovered so much more. Frequent smiles of delight broke out as we discovered new facets of the precious gem she’d become in the hands of the Master craftsman.

I couldn’t simply discard and waste what we’d found. I felt compelled to gather up and record something of Eileen’s life with the hope and prayer that this will leave a legacy of encouragement – a gift she brought to many, particularly in the latter years of her life – but more of that later.

Because of Eileen’s inimitable style, I have tried to let her tell her story wherever possible, using her scripts just as she wrote them, with the hope that, in so doing, you, the reader, will capture something of her unique personality. I have simply attempted to fill the gaps (in italics) and convey the blessing she was to the many individuals, who came to her thanksgiving service from far and wide, to tell stories that made us both laugh and cry and, above all else, to thank God for bringing her into our lives.

(Note: I