The Thread Unbroken: Resilience and Fellowship in the Spirit of Robert Burns

By Jen Hill

Few of us get through life without our best laid plans going awry. Robert Burns knew that truth all too well when he wrote:

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men. Gang aft agley.”

I learned that lesson in 2023 and 2024, when illness and loss reshaped my world. I was serving as the Scottish Society of Ottawa’s (SSO) Burns Director, planning our annual supper while undergoing cancer treatment and also mourning the loss of my father to the same foe. My days were filled with hospital visits and side effects; my nights, reflecting on what I’d lost and what lay ahead. And yet, somehow, the volunteering carried on. The Scottish Society became both a distraction and a lifeline. As Burns wrote: 

“Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess.”

Those words became my compass.

I received my final infusion just days before the supper. Unwell and exhausted I was still determined to deliver the “Address to the Haggis.” With the help of a great makeup artist, a great dress and even greater friends, I marched in with my piper and haggis crew, the smell of haggis wafting up before me, every eye on me, waiting. Nervous but steadfast in heart, I began. I don’t recall the whisky or the applause; I remember the faces, bright with laughter and kindness, gathered close in fellowship. Burns once said:

“The heart aye’s the part aye, that makes us right or wrang,”

…and that night, every heart in that room was right. Their warmth was the medicine I needed. 

Now, as the SSO’s Vicechair, I look back with gratitude. The scars have faded, the strength has returned, and the same fellowship that carried me then still holds us together today. Burns reminds us:

“The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, The man’s the gowd for a’ that.”

Through hardship, through change, through time itself, we keep the thread unbroken.

So come join us for our Burns Supper and Ceilidh, January 24, 2026 at the NDHQ Warrant Officers’ & Sergeants’ Mess - 4 Queen Elizabeth Drive, Ottawa. 

Cheer the haggis, toast the Bard, and share in that spirit of resilience and joy that defines us still. As Burns’ words laughingly remind us:

“Freedom and whisky gang thegither.”

Let’s raise a glass to that, and to each other.