Tears Before Bedtime

Some of my earliest memories come from Mandela's struggle, so embedded in our lives that we checked where all the fruit in the supermarket came from without really understanding why, writing dozens of Christmas cards to South African prisoners, not being allowed to have a Barclays bank account.... Tiny things we did and who knows what difference they made. I watched hours and hours of live TV waiting to see him released, the best bit was Desmond Tutu dancing on the lawn in excitement - another truly fantastic person. It's amazing to think Mandela was already 71 when he was released from prison, before going on to truly change the world. Many of my colleagues had the honour of meeting him, and it's a very sad day for everyone, surely. But I hope we remember, like he said, Mandela wasn't a saint, he was a man who fought for what was right and that's what we should keep on doing. It's not possible to hear this without crying. Cry Freedom (a great film, we got to watch it at school a few years before Mandela was released)