I remember especially one man - let's call him Bob - who had found a completely overgrown, walled in garden, where everything was either thorny weeds or dead, the ponds and fountains clogged up with sludge and algae and dead leaves, all the manmade structures were collapsed and in ruin, and it was a case of Bob standing there, shaking his head and simply not knowing where to start.

But luckily, sanctuary renovation is nothing like working in a real situation. For a start, and seeing that he was so forlorn, I felt he needed some practical help; and so I asked him to call in anyone who would come and aid him in this enterprise. To his astonishment, the first to materialise were his long dead paternal grandparents who had been farmers, ready equipped with various gardening tools. Past friends he had known forty years ago joined the party, army chums, family members, his wife and children amongst them, as did some people he had never met before, until there were about a hundred willing helpers standing all around him, waiting for him to tell them what to do. 

They had to wait a little while longer, because by this time he was in tears. 

He'd forgotten how many people had wished him well over the years and he had, until that point, considered himself unloved, friendless, and lonely.

He then reported to me that he had that one thought go through his mind, faintly at first, then stronger and stronger until he could "virtually hear it" - "Clear The Weeds!"

And so they set to, and many hands make light work. A mountainous heap of weeds formed in one corner of the garden, which would in time become good compost for the new generation of plants. He thanked everyone most sincerely, and they wished him well and left happily.

Well, it was a start. Bob told me later that he had, on his way home, stopped off at a gardening centre to look at the plants there to help him get some ideas of how he wanted to design his new garden - something he had never before taken even the slightest interest in. 

Like so many others, there was a new found excitement about him and an enthusiasm that was quite new to him.