This was my wedding bouquet. Can you spot what’s at the heart of it?

It seems apt to share its story on this #InternationalNursesDay

It holds all kinds of treasures & trinkets including:
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💗" title="Growing heart" aria-label="Emoji: Growing heart">Offcuts from my wedding dress
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💗" title="Growing heart" aria-label="Emoji: Growing heart">The fabric from my husband’s tie
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💗" title="Growing heart" aria-label="Emoji: Growing heart">Bows from my favourite pair of shoes from when I was 6 (yes, I kept them...)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💗" title="Growing heart" aria-label="Emoji: Growing heart">A brooch from my Great Aunt Trixie
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💗" title="Growing heart" aria-label="Emoji: Growing heart">A cufflink from my grandfather

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💗" title="Growing heart" aria-label="Emoji: Growing heart">A dress stud from my great grandfather
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💗" title="Growing heart" aria-label="Emoji: Growing heart">A ceramic rose from my brother
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💗" title="Growing heart" aria-label="Emoji: Growing heart">An earring from my grandmother
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😻" title="Smiling cat face with heart-shaped eyes" aria-label="Emoji: Smiling cat face with heart-shaped eyes">Lucky whiskers from my cat and my mums cat (no, really, there are whiskers in it)
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💗" title="Growing heart" aria-label="Emoji: Growing heart">All those odd broken bits and bobs that would otherwise have had no home

And at the heart of it, this.

My mum’s treasured nursing badge.

She, Lesley Mary Schweder, trained at @RoyalLondonHosp - she’s the one looking pensive in the bush! She then community nursed in the East End before leaving to be a ward sister in Ireland.

My mum was too poorly to come to my wedding in 2009. I had no family there in the end.

I clutched my bouquet knowing I wasn’t alone as I walked the aisle, alone.

Carrying mum - and her kindness & compassion, the hallmarks of nursing - with me.

The bouquet now stands in my hallway.

It makes me smile every day as it’s filled with objects of joy from the past.

And every time I find a whisker I tuck it in. It’s probably now half cat. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😺" title="Smiling cat face with open mouth" aria-label="Emoji: Smiling cat face with open mouth">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😽" title="Kissing cat face with closed eyes" aria-label="Emoji: Kissing cat face with closed eyes">

And, one day, it will all belong to my daughter. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💗" title="Growing heart" aria-label="Emoji: Growing heart">