Yarmouth Glenders, clue #4

Description

Media Type

Image

Item Type

Photographs

Description

Wish Clue # 4. New Friends
Photo Left to Right. Joan Jackaman, Joanne Erickson, Joan Mansell, Sarah Berry, Car Wilcox (social distancing because exposure to CoVid in family home). Photo was taken at the entrance to St Thomas Cemetery Office, 67 West Ave, St Thomas. and the road through the graves in the cemetery.
Well, clue # 4 was certainly a surprise. We had been told it involved a bookmark. We could have never imagined what kind of activity could be involved, other than creating a unique one as a group. When we read over the requirements for this WISH, much discussion ensued. We all agreed that treating a stranger to coffee and approaching her for a chat about WI had potential issues especially in a place of business. People are relaxing over a cuppa might not want their “Coffee break” interrupted. The concept looked good on paper but we were at a loss as to the way to make it happen without getting booted out for bothering customers.
Sometimes you just need to have faith that a solution would be found and ours came in the form of an email to Joan M. from the new manager of St Thomas Cemetery Company, Sarah Berry. Joan had questions about the maintenance of Kilmartin Historical Cemetery, Yarmouth Centre Road. That cemetery has the maintenance done by the St Thomas Cemetery staff and wanted to give Sarah more information about the history and maintenance issues for this Pioneer cemetery.
Joan M shared the conversation by email with the other team members and suddenly this seemed like a good way to do WISH 4. Sarah was a stranger, new to her job and we needed someone willing to hear about WI. Joan asked Sarah if she could spare few minutes to learn more about Kilmartin and Women’s Institute. Sarah has a busy schedule in her new job, lives some distance from St Thomas and has a young family. We agreed that we could all meet at St Thomas Cemetery, where Sarah is the manager, on August 31 at 11 am. We surprised her with the WI bookmark, brief history of WI and local WI work and supplied some treats for her family to enjoy.
The meeting between Yarmouth Glenders team was a great success members. We found we had a lot of things in common and the chatting was non-stop. We were respectful that this is a place of work for Sarah and
we had to let her get back to work. We strolled through the St Thomas Cemetery where several of the team members had relatives buried. It was a magic day, with sun and a refreshing breeze gently wafting through the leaves on the beautiful old trees.

Notes

Submission part of the WISH challenge for WI's 125th anniversary.

Date of Publication

Sep 2022

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