Sheila Matthews

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Sheila Matthews

Apart from undertaking her training in all things vicar wifeish, Sheila enjoys spending her days drinking coffee with friends, cuddling cats, laughing until she cries, reading books and dreaming of exotic holidays. She was once a primary school teacher and may well be again. Sheila loves being a part of the Saltwater & Honey family and having the chance to share her journey through infertility.

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Encountering Secondary Infertility

By Sheila Matthews On 12 December 2017

I’m writing this from my single room in a retreat house in the heart of Essex. I’ve just had dinner with a nun, a Rector and a saintly old lady from Suffolk. I am a fish out of water. Going on retreat has been a longing of mine for a while. I’m here for 24 hours after blackmailing Elis into…

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Can friendship survive infertility?

By Sheila Matthews On 31 October 2017

He that is thy friend indeed, He will help thee in thy need: If thou sorrow, he will weep; If thou wake, he cannot sleep: Thus of every grief in heart He with thee doth bear a part. These are certain signs to know Faithful friend from flattering foe. William Shakespeare – The Passionate Pilgrim One of the focuses of…

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Who is this week for?

By Sheila Matthews On 31 October 2016

Today marks the start of National Fertility Awareness Week. In the few years that this has been on my radar, I’ve often accompanied this announcement with a jingle or dance so please just imagine I am shimmying around as you read this. This year feels different for me. I could put it down to being a post-fertility treatment parent and…

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Turning the question around

By Sheila Matthews On 19 October 2016

“Have you thought about adoption?” This phrase has been running around my head throughout National Adoption Week. If I’m being completely honest, it runs through my head pretty regularly. I am thinking about it. When Elis and I were coming to terms with what azoospermia meant for us (“You can use a donor or adopt” said the consultant) adoption was…

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Labels

By Sheila Matthews On 16 July 2016

I always knew that Jennifer Aniston and I were similar. Our great hair and comic timing are just a couple of examples. But her recent blog for The Huffington Post confirmed our compatibility. She’s fed up. I’m fed up. Actually, I’m not fed up. I’m sad. I’ve been sad for a little while now. I thought it was the weather…

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Airbrushed

By Sheila Matthews On 26 March 2016

I love Easter. Not because of the chocolate (I’m not really a big chocolate eater) or the lovely long weekend (I generally am a big fan of any and all days off) but because it is the one point in the year when every church across the world will mourn. We gather together on Good Friday and we grieve. We…

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You are not alone

By Sheila Matthews On 5 March 2016

I didn’t go to church on Mother’s Day for many, many years because it hurt too much. I didn’t realise for a long time that I wasn’t alone. The day is hard for so many. Those grieving the loss of their own mother. The mother who has no physical child to hold. Those who are estranged from their mothers. Those…

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Blank pages

By Sheila Matthews On 11 January 2016

There is something that pulls me in about a new year. My stationery fetish may be one reason. Who can resist the lure of a brand new diary? Its crisp pages just waiting to be filled up with coffee dates, holidays, days out and the general busyness of life. And don’t get me started on a new calendar. Oh boy,…

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The story behind the story

By Sheila Matthews On 19 October 2015

So we had a baby. Why does it feel like an apology should follow? An explanation perhaps? A sheepish shrug of the shoulders and whispered tones. I had a baby but it wasn’t straightforward. The statement sounds so simple. It doesn’t detail the years of hoping and ‘trying’, the tests, the numerous doctor’s waiting rooms, consultants, nurses, more tests, the…

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Finding my voice. Again.

By Sheila Matthews On 4 September 2015

For several months now, I have been telling myself I have writer’s block. I’ve given myself many a talking to but to no avail. The thoughts and ideas whirling around my sleep deprived brain have taken shape and disappeared as quickly as our fabulous British summer. And then there are all the distractions. The Great British Bake Off began again so…

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