Secret Prose at Downham Grange

Staff at Downham Grange were pleasantly surprised when they discovered that they had a secret poet in the house.

Dorothy Hadley now aged 91 remembers that she first started writing what she calls “silly, small poems” when she was just in primary school.

She recalls that the poetry lessons at the time were “brilliant”, and can still recall poems that she learnt all those years ago”

Dorothy grew up in Suffolk; she attended a local school in Wormingford before moving to St Helena Secondary Modern before continuing her education at the Gilbert Grammar School (combined with the art school) in Colchester.

After school, Dorothy went straight into nursing and stayed in this line of work for most of her life working at hospitals in Essex and at the Colchester Teaching Hospital.

Dorothy dedicated her energy into nursing, putting in a lot of shifts before being recognised as one of two nurses selected for a New pilot scheme for domiciliary care in the area which she really enjoyed.

In her spare time Dorothy was a member of the Women’s institute, she tried other hobbies including needlework whilst trying to set up her own needlework business taking in orders to do alterations for private clients in an area of the town called Fifth Avenue but admits frustratingly that this didn’t take off. She also loves to paint with watercolours, especially flowers.

But her passion has always been writing poetry, with two she admits proudly being her favourites called ‘Sweet Confusion’ and ‘My Valentine’ which was written for her husband.

Dorothy has been married twice and has a family, together they have owned several dogs, mainly Cocker Spaniels, Jack Russels and Labradors.

Nowadays she admits to being a “history buff” and loves anything history related. Crossword’s she say’s help to keep her brain sharp; and whilst she still loves to read poetry admits that nowadays it’s mostly other people’s.