Her name’s Triumph, and she daily triumphs against adversity.

An African lady, she left her homeland, a dominion of this Disunited Kingdom,
to come and teach mathematics in the ‘Mother Country’.
Now, according to the warden of a Yorkshire park home, this old woman’s a ‘nutter’.

She waved her arms and said ‘Thank you very much’,
after crossing the road after getting off the bus.

That was his evidence for this scathing analysis of her psychological character.

What’s more, she admired Mrs Smethwick’s flowers, but caught on CCTV was,
according to her accuser, ‘Guilty as charged’.

Up before the ‘hypothetical’ judge, she was sentenced to ignominy
for admiring roses and delphiniums.

Sitting in a cafe she said, ‘Thank you very much’, to the proprietor,
an Iranian refugee, followed by ‘Have a blessed and lovely day’.

Walking up the hill to the war memorial, she received a wave from Jimmy McDonald,
a Scottish alcoholic, and known to his fellow drinkers as ‘Sarge’.

Then, limping from his wound gained at Goose Green, on that island in the Atlantic,
he entered St Paul’s church to avail of their thrice-weekly free meals.

A place, according to some, that’s a refuge for ‘derelicts.

But you’ll spot several so called ‘normal’ people, for Hicklegate,
like every town, has its share of eccentrics.

The vicar greeted the old veteran, together with his pal ‘Dublin’ Sean,
survivor of Korea’s Battle of Inchin, and Triumph, who entered swift on the pair’s heels.

When the repast had finished, she looked up at her beloved Jesus on the cross.

Mistress of the kitchen, feared and loved by all the recipients of her culinary output,
ace cook and founder of Meals for The Hungry, was a Mrs Dally-Dillingham.

When hearing of their visitor’s decision to head for pastures new,
she handed her a sweet-smelling delphinium, saying, ‘If you’re a nutter, I’m proud to be one.’

‘Your absence will be our loss.’