Pregnant with meaning
Sir: There is yet another use of the phrase ‘going forward’ which Dot Wordsworth neglected to mention in her wonderfully entertaining recent column (Mind your language, 12 April). It is one that my wife learned in 1960 when she went to visit her aunt and uncle in Buwalasi, a small hilltop village in Uganda. Her uncle taught at the nearby theological college and her aunt ran a small informal clinic from their house. She was also heavily pregnant with her first child, much to the delight of the villagers, who constantly congratulated her on the fact that she was ‘going forward’.
My wife returned to Canada before the birth took place, but her uncle was informed that contractions were beginning when the houseboy came down the hill to the college and stated, ‘Sebo, Madame wishes to produce.’
James P. Carley
Toronto, Canada
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