In out little village, in Scotland, there used to be in our Catholic church, what were called Easter and Christmas DUES.

Bear in mind people were relatively poor, but all who went to church felt compelled to contribute.

The contributions were read out from the pulpit. So imagine what happened.

Yes! They gave even more.

My dad had a small business in the village. It's a long story but in short he went home for lunch one day and returned to the ruins of a business. Somehow it had caught fire.

He had just expanded the business and was about to insure the new machinery (Yes, i KNOW!).

This rendered us very very poor, poor with a large family that had paid church contributions for years.

Nobody offered help.

Dad didn't solicit help.

Lord aloe knows how we every got through the ensuing years.

Fortunately my mum was able to spin straw into gold.