I attended my first “Death Café” last weekend. I had heard about these events in the past but had never had the time to attend,…
I cleared out my PhD office at Edinburgh Napier University today. It was a bit of a strange feeling as I know that I will be back in the…
It has been a long time coming, but I am finally a doctor. Oh yes, I am now officially Dr Frances Ryan. The PhD kind…
Today marks ten years of widowhood; ten years since my darling husband died so unexpectedly in the middle of the night. These past ten years have…
I am very pleased and extremely relieved to be able to (finally!) announce that I have passed my PhD viva – and with only minor…
Today is Thursday, 21 February. I was born on Thursday, 21 February. And on this very Thursday, 21 February, I am 21 in Scrabble tiles.…
Remember when I talked about the frustrations of the chronically ill? Well, my failed plans for an active November are a part of that frustration! Yes,…
I have been thinking about illness a lot lately. Especially about the frustrations of being chronically ill. Even more about the frustrations of being chronically…
It was nearly five years ago that I first felt a lump in my breast and panicked about the possibility of cancer. At that time, a quick…
I am a widow. I was widowed when I was a young woman of 35 and my life has never been the same since. In the…
It is Mental Health Awareness Week here in the UK, so I thought I’d share a bit about my recent efforts to keep my mental health in…
As I enter the lovely month of May, I am aware that it will be a manic month filled with mayhem and madness. There is…
When I went to see an optometrist last November, I did so expecting to be told that my eyes had deteriorated slightly, as would be…
In the early twenty-first century, a young woman’s choice in the West to live unmarried is widely accepted. Equally, thanks to the divorce law reforms…
Since (a few failed attempts at) re-entering the dating world post-widowhood, I have learned that there are many struggles to dating in the modern era. From the drama…
It’s Christmas Eve Eve (which means that tomorrow is Christmas Eve) and I am acutely aware that this Christmas is different from all of my…
Sometimes in life, you wobble. And no matter how strong and sturdy you thought you were, you begin to sway back and forth; wobbling. That’s…
That’s it folks: the buck stops here. Actually, I suppose I should say the pound stops here. Why? Because my last PhD stipend payment was today, and…
It has now been 12 weeks since I broke my ankle, and I’m pleased to say that I am well on the road to recovery. Sadly,…
Regular Just Frances readers will know that I have a rare bleeding disorder called idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). But what they may not know is that…