I have been binging over the past week.
Not on the plentiful chocolates or calorific treats that seem to flood the supermarket shelves, but on past editions of the Stratford Press. Putting together this final edition of the year is the task of going through the past year's editions to pick out the "best" of each month for a look back.
Every year I start by dreading it — it takes a good week to go through each edition, picking out the articles, then finding the photos, captioning and summarising them, and then (the hardest part) getting the red pen out and crossing some out — we can only choose a few per month!
But every year, as soon as I start, I find myself really enjoying the task. With a cup of coffee, I read every edition we have put out, often with a smile on my face as I am reminded of the wonderful people we have interviewed, events we have photographed and good news we have celebrated with our readers and our community.
Now it would be a lie to say the paper is stuffed only with good news. Stratford has its share of tragedy and heartbreak, just like anywhere else. I have covered enough house fires and car accidents to be no stranger to the grief people in our community have experienced.
