The Women’s Fellowship
Irene Purslow tells of an eventful 40 years as secretary of her local Women’s Fellowship…
It was the Seventies and standing at the school gate waiting for my children, I became friendly with the other mothers also waiting. As we chatted, it was one of these ladies who suggested that I join the Women’s Fellowship at our local church.
I took the plunge and following the AGM I found myself elected secretary just two weeks later! Although this was a terrifying prospect, there were many familiar faces from the neighbourhood and I settled into my new role quite quickly.
As secretary I was responsible for arranging all the meetings with guest speakers and our occasional trips. I was faced with a real challenge and, as if this wasn’t enough, I was told it would shortly be our turn to put on a show to perform in front of the Mothers’ Union!
I had no idea of the talent (or otherwise) of my fellow members! Fortunately, we managed to produce a show which turned out to be hilarious – my sister, who was rather slim, and our chairman, who was rather plump, dressed as Laurel & Hardy and mimed to a recording of On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine.
Two other ladies dressed as chefs to do everything one doesn’t do when handling food, from dropping it on the floor and picking it up, to smoking. The girls had a wonderful sense of humour and it turned out to be a hysterical performance.
My first event had gone off well… One unforgettable trip that I organised was to a Shropshire vineyard. We were unaware that the people living near the vineyard objected to coach parties visiting and, after a lovely evening, we discovered a problem... The residents would not allow us to leave and began attacking the coach with spades and pitchforks! The row and our subsequent police escort off the premises made it into the local paper…
Along with booking a variety of speakers I came across some delightful places for us to visit. We enjoyed a lovely evening at a nearby convent where the nuns gave us a tour then entertained us with their singing.
On another occasion we arranged a trip to a candle factory to be followed by a stop for ice-cream. The driver was a Les Dawson look-alike and had the same sense of humour. After driving
aimlessly around the countryside he suddenly pulled up alongside a field of cows and shouted through the open window, “Can you tell me the way to the ice-cream parlour?” Sadly, the cows were unable to help!
Being fortunate in having so many members we were able to raise money for various charities by holding jumble sales that were popular at the time, as well as fêtes and Bring and Buys.
Throughout the years we enjoyed visits to the theatre, beer and skittle nights and, as I shared in an issue of Yours last year, we were lucky enough to be part of the audience for a recording of the TV show Bullseye.
Sadly we were forced to close the club in 2016 as our membership was shrinking, but many of us are still in touch and often reflect on the wonderful times we had.
‘We were unaware that the residents living near the vineyard objected to coach parties visiting...’