Fifty members attended our November monthly meeting and were welcomed by our president Jean Lewis. She reminded us that contributions for Christmas raffle prizes are now due and informed us that the BFWI were running another Christmas Quiz in aid of their funds.
Our donation of £200 to the Alexander Devine childrens hospice was gratefully received and a letter of thanks was read out. The AGM of the National Federation will be in April at the Albert Hall and we will send a delegate. Our recently formed singing group received the thumbs up after the inaugural meeting when we sang a lot on old favourites and at our next gathering we will be singing carols. Plans for our 20th birthday celebrations are gathering apace and tickets for the lunch at Moor Hall are now on sale . We will also have a well known conjurer so it should be a memorable event.
We have had some really amusing speakers over the year but Sheila Kennedy must surely surpass any. A feisty attractive lady she was something of a stand up comedienne and regaled a receptive audience with her often hilarious account of her working life at Heathrow Airport. Even as a child she had an ambition to work at the airport and she more than realized this ambition.
She worked for Pan Am and also for BA mainly on the information desks and in Customer Liason and later became a " Hunter " a team sorting out problems on the airport floor. There is no doubt that she empathized with people and made many friends with the travelling public. She featured largely in the BBC TV programme "The secret life of the Airport ", but confessed that she herself hated flying and was happier with her feet on the ground.
She left the airport for 5 years and changed tack completely buying boarding kennels in Wales where she devoted her life to four legged friends. Here she joined her local WI and started to give talks . But the lure of Heathrow was too strong and when her father had a stroke she sold the kennels and returned to live in West Drayton to care for him and eventually returned to the airport to work as an 'Auntie'.
A lovely funny lady - we never stopped laughing.
We meet in December at Maureen Lawrence's house, a social event where quizzes, big raffles and mince pies are the highlights.
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