Out & About: Respect to My Ancestors on Remembrance Day

Liz looks back at her family's roles in wartime and appeals for Poppy sellers for next year
I am writing this on a very chilly Sunday evening in front of a roaring fire watching Countryfile as they tour our fabulous countryside sharing news of projects to support our veterans across the UK.

Remembrance Day

Remembrance is always an important time for me. It is a time that I give extra thought and consideration to my ancestors who fought in each of the World Wars. My Grandpa, who passed away in August aged 95, spent time in Italy and Egypt whilst my Grandma was stationed at Bletchley Park as a De-coder. My Great-Grandfather was awarded the Military Cross (MC) and a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in the First World War.
Thankfully, my late Dad spent years putting together our family history and in more recent years, Grandpa and I spent hours recording interviews and capturing his memories on audio. I am now working on migrating all of my Dad’s work onto a new website along with Grandpa’s recordings as I think it is so important to remember and for my nephews, the next generation, to learn also.

Back to the Future

This is where the inspiration for our inter-generational “Back to the Future” project came from and on Saturday 9 December we will hold our second of four events welcoming people under 20 and over 70 to come together to make friends and learn from each other.
Please do get in touch if you would like to join this project as we have a lovely Christmas afternoon planned at the Nantwich Museum. We will be making Christmas table decorations with our newest Community Hub member, florist Janet Wright and we will enjoy some Christmas treats and a short sing-song, all funded by Cheshire Community Foundation. Find out more on our Facebook event page: facebook.com/events/142312076523924.

Selling Poppies

I have been able to make time in my diary to help with the Poppy Appeal and I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of shifts up at Bridgemere with volunteers from the local Royal British Legion. I know the Legion are keen to recruit more Poppy sellers for next year so please do consider this as a very practical way to help. Anyone interested in helping in the next Poppy Appeal should contact the Poppy Appeal Organiser, Bea Rigby on 01270 651160 or email beatricerigby@aol.com.
I met some really lovely people, including one lady who had a collection of Poppies spanning 40 years! The photo at the top this week is of Elaine King (who celebrated her birthday selling Poppies) and Janet Thompson who came up from Northampton to lend a hand. Even Jasper my dog joined in modelling the reflective Poppies that hang on zips (or dog collars!)
Remembrance was wrapped up for Michael-John and me with a service at St Margaret's Church in Wrenbury, and then hot-footing it over to Nantwich to see the wreath-laying procession. Always a moving sight and proud to see my nephew Ben parading in his Cub’s uniform, something I used to love as a Brownie and then of these willAir Cadet.

Volunteer of the Week

I am launching a new feature this week called Volunteer of the Week. This is a short introduction and thank you to our volunteers, some of whom are from RedShift and some from the wider community.
My first one is THANK YOU to Kelly-Ann Jones who has been a wonderful addition to the RedShift team since being a guest on our “Teachers News” show about six years ago.
Kell is one of our volunteers who often goes above and beyond: she helps me with our outdoor events (pictured here as “Witchy-Kell at Wistaston Fireworks), training new presenters and she presents a great Sunday afternoon show called Wellbeing Weekly.
Aside from RedShift, Kell teaches at Adelaide School and is also very involved with the Scouts and specifically the Crewe Gang Show. As volunteer marketing coordinator for the Scouts, I know Kell would love to hear from any local business who could sponsor the very special 80th anniversary which comes to the Lyceum in May 2018.

The Floorman

My final shout out this week is to John Sims our lovely floorman. We have been having some work done on the house and in order not to hold up our builders, John kindly gave up his whole weekend to finish our dining room floor. He has been here for 10 hours today (Sunday) and we are so grateful and not to mention, thrilled with the result! Thank you John. If anyone is looking for a new floor, please contact John on 07711 129 920.
Please look out for my "Out and About" page each week in the Crewe Chronicle. For more information about any of the items in this article, please email us here at RedShift or call us on 01270 440 750.

This article appeared in Crewe Chronicle on 15th November 2017.