A beautiful thing happened to me whilst I was on the way to my seat. I was sitting in the upper circle and my row was down some very steep steps. The steps didn’t have a bannister and all of sudden it dawned on me how much of a problem this was. I always have the safety-net of a bannister nearby, even if I don’t use it. My legs were unsure, worried. They didn’t feel happy going down without something stable to hold onto. I’m getting stronger, but this felt too much. I fell down some stairs last year so there’s old trauma there on top of wobbly, unbalanced legs. Usually my companion helps me but we’d got to our seats at different times. I was on my own. But I wasn’t…

‘Madam, these stairs are very steep. May I help you down?’ a delightfully polite usher asked me. Life just got so much better, I thought. It was music to my ears. ‘Usually I go down one step first and then you follow’ he said. So I tried that and thought I can be stronger than this. I’m not that frail, I just need a bit of reassurance for my balance. ‘Let’s walk down together’ I said. And with that, I stood taller and more confidently and we walked down the steps in unison, arms linked, step by steep step, all the way to my seat.

I’m grateful for the small kindnesses of people. They don’t realise just how much difference they can make to another person’s life. They are, in those moments, guardian angels and it brings a passionate tear of gratitude to my eye to realise I met an angel today.