Sandra Says … Thank you to all my readers and goodbye

The first of these is to say goodbye to the News Letter readers for whom I have enjoyed writing this column for nearly two decades. That’s a long time.

The offer to create this column came from a previous editor who eventually moved on himself. Those were troublesome days in Northern Ireland and Belfast was not the safest place in which to work

But from childhood I had always wanted to be a journalist. Maybe that streak of wanting to know about everything is in us all, but the opportunities to fulfil the dream are not there for everyone.

The News Letter has been continuously published since 1737…. a bit before even my time. It has survived all the current troubles – and those before that. It has also survived two world wars when the Germans tried to bomb it out of existence. During the troubles it also suffered severe damage from IRA bombs, but never missed a deadline.

The excitement of meeting deadlines has been my life for my career and my Sandra Says column has been filed from places like Crete, Madeira and other holiday destinations. Those filed during our annual boating holidays have been perhaps the most challenging. I will miss the pursuit of news, but as I indicated earlier nothing is forever. Thanks to all my readers who have found the column interesting enough to stay with me all these years. Goodbye.