“There are challenges that are eternal. How do we stand and face our fears? And how do we let go? We forge on because we must with weapons as fragile as courage, as simple as work, or as precious as compassion for our fellow human beings. These are the threads that bind the very warp and weft of days. The things we think we will remember, then move on from and forget.”

Episode 7 had several storylines.

Rosalind has nausea and vomiting with her pregnancy, and Joyce helps to conceal her secret. The engagement and imminent wedding are announced. It will be held in three weeks.

The quickness hints at the swiftness, but there is nothing but acceptance… EXCEPT for two people that mean the world to Rosalind… her parents. She is crushed by their reaction, but her work family and friends see the joy with the couple’s life decision. 

From a previous storyline, we see little Susan Mullocks. She is growing up. Susan was exposed to Thalidomide and was born with a limb reduction defect called phocomelia. 

Her mum, Rhoda, falls ill from her gallbladder issues but tries to ignore her health as she is too busy caring for the family. Her father has a meaningful Alcoholics Anonymous where he shares his thoughts and feelings. He brings up the recent deaths from the carbon monoxide (from an earlier episode), and you see the interconnections within their community. 

After Susan falls down the stairs, their older daughter, Belinda, reluctantly returns home from college to help. Her pregnancy is revealed as she removes her coat and announces to her father (Bernie) that she is eight months pregnant. 

Violet Buckle vocally supports the midwives and the Maternity Home, with a journalist following her and petitions and signatures in hand. But it is to no avail — the closures seem to have the writing on the wall.

Beryl makes a list of things she wants to do. It is a fabulous suggestion from Geoffrey. 

The list entails simple things such as buying a new dress, drinking wine, and earning money. It is meant to help her identify which “sacrifice will be most bearable” for her with the decision looming ahead. 

The scene where she almost has trouble breathing while putting on lipstick really touched me… I am unsure, but I felt a shifting there. We will see.   

Trixie accepts the job as Matron of the Lady Emily Clinic for Women & Babies. However, you can see she is already conflicted about offering services to the privileged. She states she cannot begin until after the New Year. 

I do not know why, but I do not trust that MD she is meeting to go out to dinner with…. Hmmmm…..   

Timothy Turner and his cohort of Junior Doctors arrive in Poplar for their rotation, and I have flashbacks of the new residents as they arrived in springtime to begin their residency programs. 

Timothy does a wonderful job comforting a baby, attending a woman in labor independently, as Joyce had an emergent situation with a baby that had stopped breathing due to croup. 

I could see that Timothy is very much like his father, and I wonder about his path forward as well.

Sister Catherine is frustrated with Sister Monica Joan’s lack of enthusiasm for adaptations such as the television in her room, and the presentation of the wheelchair to increase mobility, and the ultimate of stopping her medications. 

Sister Monica Joan sees these options, but she feels a stark contrast with her choices, and she throws her medication as she moves towards her acceptance of what will unfold. 

The reality that she will move from chronic kidney disease to end-stage kidney disease leaves Sister Catherine distraught and suddenly very empty and alone. But, in Nonnatus House and with these amazing individuals, you will never walk alone on your journey — Shelagh orchestrates for everyone to come to pray with Sister Catherine.   

As a modern-day midwife, I want to blog about a sentence in the opening words voiced by Vanessa Redgrave. “These are the threads that bind the very warp and weft of days.” 

I must admit that I did not know what that term meant. I had to look it up, and it sent me on a spiral of investigation. I loved the origins of the meaning along with the metaphor of the term. 

The phrase comes from the weaving of tapestries. The “warp” is the threads stretched vertically on the loom, while the “weft” is the threads woven horizontally through them. 

The warp (the fixed vertical) represents the foundational threads. The warp is the structure. The weft is woven in and out horizontally, creating the patterns and texture. The weft is dynamic and represents change and action. 

The finished fabric comes together intertwined. In Britain, it is often used to emphasize the inseparable part of existence. Together, you have an interconnected structure of a concept, a community, or our lives. The two distinct elements create the whole. You need both. 

In the tapestry of our lives, we have our heritage that supports and gives us a base. Like our Call the Midwife family, we have Nonnatus House and the Maternity Home with their history, vision, and mission — essentially their calling. 

They are our warp. 

But it is each character that makes up the tapestry of the connections. They are the weft or threads in an eternal weave. 

I feel shifting and change. Threads are being altered, and our tapestry may unravel. What does our final episode hold for us?

“Often, a fear faced up to is a fear outgunned. And love expressed becomes love doubled and ignited, whether we light the fire through words, or deeds. There is always a way ahead, a route through the woods. A path that leads us to the place we need to be. We listen, always, for the voice that calls us. But sometimes love speaks loudest as we let it go.”