09/11/2025
Remembrance Sunday Reflection
Today I’ve been thinking about a husband and wife I once supported. As children, they lived through the war and the devastation of Coventry being bombed. They remembered rationed food and clothes, nights filled with fear, and growing up with almost nothing.
The wife told me about the one special thing she owned as a child, a small teddy bear given to her by her aunt, handmade by prisoners of war. She treasured it her whole life. When I met her as an adult, she still had that teddy bear… along with hundreds more.
For her, holding on to things wasn’t clutter.
It was comfort.
It was safety.
It was a way of soothing the memories of a childhood filled with scarcity and loss.
For both of them, hoarding was never about possessions.
It was about survival.
It was about never wanting to feel “without” again.
On Remembrance Sunday, I’m reminded that behind every cluttered home is a story shaped by experiences we may never see at first glance.
And sometimes those stories began in childhood, during moments of fear and rationing and uncertainty that left a lifelong mark.
Today, we remember, with compassion.
