When I left work at sixty there was a mixture of loss, anticipation and anxiety.

After working for 40 years with a sense of purpose, and a reason to get up in the morning I was left staring into a black hole.

The phone stopped ringing, the e-mails stopped appearing in my inbox and my daily contact with colleagues ended, the future looked endless with no direction home.

What do I do now, look for another job, go on more holidays, be a volunteer, enjoy my current hobbies or learn new ones, the answer to all these questions was yes and I did all of these things with no plan and no objective.

I realised I needed to take a step back and decide on what I really enjoyed.

All my life I loved listening to music and trying to learn the guitar. At the age of 60 it’s clearly too late to join a rock and roll band but I still wanted to play with a group. Where do I go and where do I start.

When a local ukulele band advertised for new members, making it clear all abilities were welcome, I plucked up courage to join them.

Walking into the music room for the first time was intimidating but introductions were made and I sat down with my ukulele and started my first ever song playing as a member of a group.

Country Roads was suggested, chord sheets were handed out, and as the opening lines were sung, “Almost Heaven West Virginia…….” I listened and played and as was swept along with a feeling of wellbeing and joy, I could even believe I was in West Virginia.

Seven years later I am still with the same group but have made friends with other ukulele players throughout the Leeds area.

As a final note I will say that I don’t know why, but playing a ukulele just makes you smile!