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The members of Wilmslow
Branch send you our best wishes and hope that 2010 will bring us sunshine
instead of rain. In
June we celebrated our 15th birthday by having a very pleasant lunch in a
local hotel but for Christmas we have planned a more formal meal in a very
nice restaurant closer to home so transport will not be a problem.
Our numbers are quite small,
averaging eight or nine, but we are a faithful band and though age and
mobility means we can't do all the things we used to do, we still enjoy our
meetings and think ourselves lucky to be as active as we are.
3 September 2009, 70 years
since war was declared, turned out to be an unusual and interesting day. We
have a dear friend who organizes outings for the local branch of the Lions
Club and she invited us to go with them to visit the National Memorial
Arboretum near Lichfield. Four
accepted the invitation and
each took a companion, one took her son, one took her husband and the others
took a friend.
On boarding the coach, they
found it was almost full of elderly Chinese people from
Manchester. Their organizer
could speak English so he introduced everyone and on learning
the identity of these ex
forces the Chinese were all smiles and applause.
A packed lunch had been
prepared and, as there was no room in the restaurant, they had to
sit outside. Unfortunately
there was a cold wind blowing, but that didn't deter these ex soldiers and
the lunch soon disappeared. Hot drinks were very much appreciated.
The electric scooters that
are on loan enable those who find walking difficult to be mobile, so our
party made their way to the ATS statue for photographs – ‘our little girl'
our secretary calls
her. After visiting the War Memorial and other sites of interest it was back
on the coach to
Wilmslow where they said farewell to the Chinese party amid smiles and
applause again.
A few years ago at this time
we would have made plans for our visit to London for the
Remembrance Parade but this
year we attended our own Church and civil services but our
thoughts were with all those
who were fit enough to be in London and we congratulate you
all.
Unless you have taken
part in the Parade you will never have known that marvellous feeling
of camaraderie with those
who, like us, had been part of that fight for freedom, of being on the same
side with just one objective. It's a wonderful atmosphere.
Some of our members also
attended the North West Area Reunion in Liverpool in
September.
We miss Betty, our member in
Spain at Christmas, but enjoy drinking her health - she
kindly sends us some money in
lieu of cards, for which we send our thanks.
By the time the next
Lioness
is delivered we will be in 2010 and Christmas will be just a
memory so we send our best
wishes to Joan in Australia and close with the words
of Tiny Tim 'GOD BLESS US,
EVERY ONE'. |
