The New Year presented me with a strange feeling of mixed emotions.

On reflection, it was the first New Year’s Day in about 15 years that I didn’t need to visit a hospital or nursing home to see or tend to a sick relative.

Many of you reading this will relate to the fact that there comes a time when elderly friends and relatives become unwell and spend a great deal of time in homes or hospitals, being tended to by the caring profession.

Our hospitals and nursing homes don’t stop during the holidays and despite the challenges and cutbacks currently being faced by these institutions, they still employ many hard-working heroes that give so much love and care to patients and residents.

This is not a job that I’d find easy to do and I believe that it does take a special type of individual to embrace the responsibility that goes with the job.

They have my utmost respect.