June is always a time of reflection particularly for the outgoing President who is about to become a "Passed it" or IPP. Ann had two years to look back on but kept her comments to a "whistle stop tour" of the past twelve months which has been very busy and has been documented on these pages.

When reflecting we realised that we have achieved much in the last twelve months as was evident from all the photographs that were being shown from the President's photo album.

Ann thanked her officers and members for the support she received with special thanks for outgoing International Service Officer Joyce. Ann was particularly delighted at the funds raised by the Club for its charities in such difficult times.

Ann's final job as President is to Induct the incoming President by passing to her the Chain of Office.

On to the new

Jane's first act as President was to thank Ann on behalf of the Club Members and to present to her a gift in appreciation for all that she has done for the Club over the last two years. Ann did look somewhat perplexed to start with. It is most unusual for the Club to make a gift to the outgoing President but all agreed that the last two years have been exceptional and our Club could have looked very different now without the effort made by Ann to keep us on track.

Jane rounded off the evening with a presentation giving us a little insight into her life and gave us a taster of what to look forward to in the weeks to come.

Look to the 2022-23 Inner Wheel year to find out.

The May meeting found fifteen of our members cast away on a desert island. Having chosen their book, favourite piece of music and luxury item to take with them they all then were tasked with guessing which castaway was taking what with them. With most members guaranteed to get one correct the task proved to be exceedingly difficult. Diane F and Angela were the joint winners although I suspect our President did pretty well also.

With Club Correspondent and original host Yvette laid up with some horrible virus, Liz stepped in to smooth the evening along.

Some of the items the castaways could not live without: Lancashire Cheese, Champagne (two castaways), Hot tub, Chanel No 5, clean sheets, TV, Black Mascara, wind up radio, Poppies biscuits, luxury comfy chair and sunshade, saxophone, memory book, a camera and a kindle.

Dear all please don't shoot the Club Correspondent next time you see her, she just put the information together. Remember you were the ones who chose what you were taking!

Wow is the best word to describe the second part of our Mother and Daughter get together. This time the Inner Wheel Clubs of Long Eaton (Mother) and Church Wilne (Daughter) met at the Risley Village Hall for their joint Charter celebrations. Thirty-nine in total including special guests, Inner Wheel District Chairman Jacquie Chapman, the President of Church Wilne Rotary Club, Gary Abbott and Senior Vice President of Long Eaton Rotary Club, Dick Knight together with several members of the Inner Wheel District 22 Executive Committee.

Both Clubs worked hard to decorate the hall with lots of bunting and various bits of Royal memorabilia. The cake was made and the candles ready to be lit, speeches were ready and mercifully short. A fantastic afternoon of friendship and fun resplendent in crowns made earlier.

After completion of the formalities a delicious afternoon tea!

It was two years almost to the day since the Mother Club, (the IW Club of Long Eaton) and daughter Club, (the IW Club of Church Wilne) had their long overdue joint meeting at the Royal Oak hosted by Church Wilne.

As you would expect when Mums and daughters get together there was plenty of good food, some wine and other beverages. Lots of gossip, laughter plus glue, sticky backed jewels, felt tip pens and creativity.

Denied all this time by Covid, twenty five of us met at The Royal Oak. It was a golden, or should I say Platinum, opportunity to celebrate by making preparations for our joint Charter taking place in May and also Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee by creating our own personal crowns for the event.

Ably demonstrated by Pauline, who led the fun and sourced the crowns and materials, what followed was just amazing as you can see by the photos below.

Looking forward to the second instalment of this Mother and Daughter fun in May at the joint birthday parties – Charters.

Here we can see the crafters like bees around the honey. Lots of different things to choose from

"Mums and Daughters".

It is with sadness that we said farewell to Josie Graham who died on the 25^th March 2022 but her funeral on the 13^th April was a wonderful celebration of Josie's life.

St Chad's at Church Wilne was packed for the service of Thanksgiving with Reverend Gary Dundas officiating.

Josie made a rousing entry to Seventy-Six Trombones by André Rieu. After the welcome and opening prayer the congregation sang the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful.
There followed a reading of the 23rd Psalm the Lord is my Shepherd by Josie and Roger's son Simon.

Tributes were made by their son Dom for the Family
John Cox for Round Table and Rotary
Followed by our President Ann for Inner Wheel. Ann's tribute is set out below.

"The Inner Wheel Club of Church Wilne was founded 35 years ago by the wives of the Rotarians, who had formed their Club 2 years previously.

When Roger gathered together the men, 37 years ago, Josie encouraged their wives to meet up and have their own social evenings in each other's houses. The ladies remember these informal evenings very fondly.

But Josie was keen that a fully-fledged, and affiliated, Inner Wheel Club should be formed, and from those wives, 21 ladies agreed to make up the Founder members, with Josie as the Founder President. Meeting in the upstairs room at the Chequers in Breaston, they stayed in Inner Wheel, and together experienced the fun and friendship that are the aims and objectives of Inner Wheel, along with support for International activities. Many of those original ladies are here today, and 4 remain members of the Club.

To help with writing this tribute I spoke to several ladies about the beginnings of the Club and the years that followed. All speak of Josie as a lovely, caring, very able and kind lady. Always available to give good advice, help to solve problems, and with a willing 'listening ear' Josie was extremely respected in every way. I can honestly say that the compliments have been a pleasure to hear and a wonderful tribute to Josie.

Memories came back of attending Conferences, trips out, cabaret appearances at Rotary events, Charters and above all, great friendship.

Josie's name is the first on our regalia, but it appears again 12 years later, at the Millennium, when the members persuaded her to return as President for that special year.

Josie continued to attend our meetings until quite recently. We were particularly pleased that she was able to attend our Christmas meal last December. Eating well, wearing a Christmas hat, Josie smiled and happily joined in with the members.

We will always remain grateful to Josie for her dedication to the Club and its members.

Thank you, Roger, for giving the Club the opportunity to celebrate the dedication Josie gave to Church Wilne."

Two further hymns – Guide me O Thou Great Redeemer and Love Divine, All Loves Excelling. Then the commendation and prayers. The service ended with Josie leaving the Church to Lara's Theme from Dr Zhivago by André Rieu.
The retiring collection for The Friends of St Chad's was well supported by the congregation.

A selection of photographs of Josie over the years.

The final photo at an Inner Wheel event enjoying the Christmas meal December 2021

Our regular monthly meeting in March is usually dedicated to the business of getting ready for the next Inner Wheel year. Last year this was all dealt with on Zoom so it was especially pleasant to all be together at the Royal Oak. The bulk of the business was quickly out of the way which left the evening for our International Officer Joyce to bring us up to speed and for us all to enjoy the spoils on the tabletop sale. We were all very aware of the turbulence in the World and at Joyce's request the Club agreed the proceeds from the tabletop sale, a special raffle and the generosity of the members would go to support the Sovereign Nation of Ukraine. A substantial sum was raised much to the delight of everyone present.

It was also an opportunity to enjoy catching up with our friends and celebrating with Margaret L for a special birthday and Jane M becoming a grandmother to Finley.

President Ann with Margaret.

Wow is the only word that you can use to describe the wonderful afternoon that we spent at Risley Village Hall on Saturday 11^th March. Linda Smith NAFAS area Demonstrator gave up her time to support President Ann at this charity fund raising event for the Padley Centre Derby.

With the theme of the four seasons Linda demonstrated four arrangements which were supplemented by other "Blue Peter" ones she had "made earlier" (Your CC showing her age I fear).

The atmosphere in the Hall was electric. You could have heard a pin drop as the sixty plus ladies watched as the arrangements took shape.

We were joined by the District Chairman – Jacquie Chapman. The structure of Inner Wheel is that there is an overarching Association of the Inner Wheel Clubs of Great Britain & Ireland, which in turn is part of International Inner Wheel. Within GB&I the country is divided into Districts and we are one of the 22 Clubs forming District 22. During her year in office the DC will visit each Club, telling us a little about herself and joining us for whatever activity we had planned for the evening.

Inner Wheel in GB & I stretches from the Shetland Isles in the far north, the whole of Ireland is District 16 and District 11 includes the Isle of White and the Channel Islands. Inner Wheel had its origins in Manchester and will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2024 with an International Convention in Manchester.

We finished the evening with two games of Bingo ably called by Diane F. Stephanie had also brought to the meeting some of the Archive photo folders which are always a pleasure to see.

What a wonderful start to the New Year. President Ann welcomed our latest member Liz.

We were then entertained by six of the members:-

President Ann read extracts from the 2^nd World War autograph book of Rosemary who was evacuated as a child. Diane F read an eerily evocative piece from The Nine Taylors by Dorothy L Sayers painting pictures of Lincolnshire in the mists with bells tolling mournfully. Ann A regaled us with tales of "when I grow old I shall wear purple" by Jenny Joseph. Pauline told of the poem written by her daughter at age 12 of "Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden". We had a stirring recital from Anna of "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley which was a comfort to Nelson Mandela when he was incarcerated on Robin Island. Finally we had Jane P reading two poems by Pam Ayres. an entertaining evening appreciated by us all.

November saw us meeting again at the Royal Oak. There was much merriment and laughter as we attempted to make baubles for our Christmas Trees. There seemed to be glue and glitter everywhere. Ably lead by Pauline and Diane, as can be seen from the photographs we rose to the challenge.

Not too sure what Diane did but somehow from glorious assistant she went to chief cleaner upper. Here she is picking up the glitter one piece at a time!!!"

This meeting was devoted to fellowship with six members bringing friends to the meeting. We all enjoyed listening to Barry Colenso Master Chocolatier but sadly no longer a maker of fine chocolates due to supply problems. We did enjoy some chocolate with our tea or coffee thanks to Yvette who had a recent milestone birthday – (21 again!!)

We were delighted to invite to our monthly meeting at the Royal Oak Ockbrook chocolatier Barry Colenso. Barry spoke of his career as a chocolatier and how it has now taken him around the world.

He delighted us when he explained his involvement in the design of the chocolate biscuit cake made with the McVities Cake Company for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011.

The extravagant cake contained over 12 Kgs of chocolate and 1,700 McVities Rich Tea Biscuits. Barry's hand-made chocolate leaves, fronds and flowers, each took over six hours to create. Barry said "The pressure was incredible. All the elements of the cake were made and transported separately, and once at the Palace everything need to be reassembled. It was such a huge project that the Queen, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry all paid us a visit."

President Ann worked hard with Jane P to have everything ready for the team running the catering tent to provide refreshment for the 90 plus rotary members and friends who were the volunteers to the Rotary Horse ride not to mention lots of happy but weary riders and their supports.

Ann, having prepared as much as possible then left us to it as she went on a well-deserved holiday.

12^th September dawned fine and dry thankfully apart from one rather heavy downpour in the late afternoon. The team of ladies worked well together and a good sum was raised for President Ann's charity – The Padley Centre.

We were again blessed with lovely weather for the joint meeting with Rotary and the Satellite Club in the garden of Gary and Margaret Abbott. Great food, plenty of drink and lots of fellowship.

Some came by foot but others chose a far more "Hell's Angels" way to arrive!

Ann welcomed Kerry from the Padley Centre.

Kerry explained how the Padley Centre and changed / improved its service due to the COVID restrictions – how it now works more closely with Derby City ( and County ) Council / Social Services and other partnership agencies who "refer people in" for support and the hostel centre and there is now almost no homelessness in Derby due to the Government scheme through COVID.

The Padley Centre has 3 x "dispersed houses" – basically "own flat system" which have a concierge / on-call system - and offers courses at the day centre for support, e.g. budgeting, mindfulness, cooking and advice. There are new options – hair/beard trimming, meditation, music, a theatre group and a podiatrist.

The Padley Centre does continue to offer food parcels, hot food delivered to people with no kitchen and free school meals over the summer. There is free food for people but they must engage in a session. Kerry said that it was nice to hear the people talking to each other properly – before they had been very angry, frustrated and abusive.

There were a number of questions for Kerry – she was pleased to state that they are working with "Women's' Work" agency for women at risk of homelessness due to abuse ; the charity shop is going well and has a new safe / quiet space. (Thank you Jane M for your notes from the meeting).

The Inner Wheel ladies once again rose to the occasion with many donations of food, clothing and money. Ann was able to present Kerry with a cheque.

A sad start to the month for the members at Church Wilne with the death on 2nd August of Doreen Ramsden. Our Club Welfare Officer Pauline Sheehy-Smith wrote this beautiful tribute:

"Sadly, Doreen Ramsden has passed away last Monday 2nd August. Doreen was at home surrounded by her family.
 
As you know, Doreen had been unwell at various intervals for a number of years and endured many hospital stays during that time. Indeed, she was responding well to her last set of treatments. Unfortunately, earlier this year Doreen contracted pneumonia and this caused her many problems resulting in three hospital admissions.
 
Doreen was an inspiration. She was determined to live life to the full and rarely let her various health issues overwhelm her. She never hid her health problems nor did she allow them to stop her achieving her goals. Her strength of character and amazing zest for life, no matter what she was dealing with, always shone through..
 
Doreen outlived the medical practitioners' predictions and survived longer than they had anticipated. I am sure given her fortitude she would have overcome her current cancers had it not been for the pneumonia. She was responding well to the immunotherapy treatment...
 
We will miss Doreen at our meetings and functions but know that as such a very long-standing member of Inner Wheel, and a former office holder of numerous roles sometimes more than once, she will be with us in spirit."

A group of us attended her funeral at Trent Valley Crematorium on Friday 20th August. A lovely day with a touching ceremony of Remembrance showing many traces of Doreen and lovingly conducted by her daughters.

The 1^st July is the start of the new Inner Wheel year. This looks far more promising than the start of last year and it is to be hoped that President Ann has much to look forward to.

Church Wilne Inner Wheel Club celebrated its 34th birthday in style this year – in person. Hurray! Club members and their guests from Long Eaton Inner Wheel Club met in President Ann's Garden to enjoy some long-awaited, socially-distanced company. We all felt really privileged to be able to meet in person and luckily President Ann's party tent and gazebo was large enough to accommodate us all.

The celebration cake was cut by guest of honour, District Chair Margaret Day – this was the first club charter she had attended this year.

At our April Zoom meeting, some members gave us their own reviews of the following books:
    • "Where the Crawdads sing" by Delia Owens
    • "The Berlin Girl" by Mandy Robotham
    • "Away with the Penguins" by Hazel Prior
    • "The Century Trilogy" by Ken Follett
    • "Cragside" by L J Ross
    • "My Husband & I" by Ingrid Seward
 
The reviewers gave us a fascinating insight into each of the books, all of which sound to be a very good read.

Post meeting note: your Club Correspondent has since read some of the books and can most definitely recommend them.

At the start of the pandemic in 2020, panic buying led to shortages of toilet paper. How on earth would we all manage? Well, take a moment to consider: what would life be like without a toilet?

In February we talked about items which remind us of happy memories, including a favourite place or a place we would not return to! We saw some lovely pen and ink drawings and a 75 year old doll, a fairy who moves, and a treasured set of international dolls. We learned about the "superlambanana" – an ornament based on the Liverpool cultural icon and much-loved sculpture, reflecting the port's rich history in the trade of lambs and the import of bananas. Items reminding us of places ranged from photos of lovely walks up Catbells (a mountain in the Lake District), a mini tea set from Vietnam (happy memories of the interesting market where it was purchased and wonderful butterflies and dragonflies seen in the countryside) and a photo from Cambodia, showing the poor state of the roads in a town centre, in sharp contrast to the super 5* hotel just around the corner, where our member stayed.

Laura, the daughter of one of our members, is currently studying to become a dentist and she joined us in January to give us some tips on "how to avoid the dentist's drill". She covered different aspects of the "oral environment", which includes teeth, gums, tongue and lips. We learned how to remove plaque effectively, that brushing teeth before meals is better than after meals, and not to "rinse" after cleaning our teeth as this washes away all that lovely fluoride in our toothpaste. Laura also supports the "Open Wide" Society, which visits schools to advise children on diet, oral health and what to expect at a check-up, so they are not frightened by the dentist.

For the Christmas party on Zoom, Church Wilne Inner Wheel Club celebrated with a variety of entertainment. Members participated in a short festive quiz, and were entertained with corny cracker jokes and other jokes. A reading from "Cider with Rosie" had members wanting more and amusing poetry readings including "Where's Grandma?", "Why Parents Drink" and "The Tea Dance" had us chuckling. Most members showed a Christmas decoration and told us the stories behind them: the oldest decoration was 80 years old – it had been made when the owner was a baby; the nutcracker came from East Germany. It was very interesting to hear so many different stories and "tell us about a Christmas decoration" will feature again next year. A photographic tour of nighttime illuminations at Harlow Carr RHS gardens near Harrogate made members marvel at the colours and displays - they certainly cheered up a gloomy winter night.

It was a very different but most enjoyable evening. How will 2021 unfold? Meetings will continue on Zoom for the foreseeable future, but hopefully at some point, we will manage to meet in person again.

At our Club Zoom meeting in October, members enjoyed a game of bingo. Bingo cards had been distributed in advance, and it was "eyes down" as member Diane called the numbers. There were 3 prizes up for grabs, so concentration was intense. Several players in the first game were waiting on just one last number to complete their cards. Those of us who were novice players soon learnt that it's not just a matter of listening for your numbers to come up and marking them off on the cards – some of the numbers require a response. So, 5 and 6, 56, the caller asked "was she worth it?", "every penny" came the response – apparently 5 shillings and sixpence used to be the price of a marriage certificate. 22 – Two little ducks – "quack,quack" was the response. 87 – Torquay in Devon – brought back memories of sunnier times. Legs 11 requires a wolf whistle.

Our Club is now holding monthly meetings on Zoom. At our last meeting we had an event based on the TV programme "Room 101". President Ann took the chair and the three members on the panel presented some interesting choices, based on the categories – an item, a country and an activity. It was a lively meeting, with much discussion on the items before we voted for the best in each category.

Here's a selection of what was presented:
•     How many remote controllers does your household have?
•     Do you use your juicer machine daily or does it sit in your cupboard gathering dust because it takes so long to produce a glass of juice?
•     Can you tell what that personalized number plate is really supposed to mean?
•     Why are Welsh place names so long and difficult to pronounce?
•     Have you ever been stuck behind a lorry very slowly overtaking another lorry? The Germans call it "Elefantenrennen" (Elephant racing). An elephant race takes place when one truck overtakes another with very little difference in speed, taking a long time to complete the manoeuvre and potentially causing traffic to stack up behind (and tempers to fray!).

Our Club does not usually meet in August, but so far this year, August has been one of the few months when some members of the Club did manage to get together.

A picnic can be defined as a meal taken outdoors – ideally in a scenic location. This seemed to fit the bill for a socially distanced event in the garden of one of the Club members. In accordance with our "new normal", a risk assessment was undertaken and appropriate measures put in place.

Our AGM was held on Zoom this year – a first for our Club. Joint Club Presidents Paula and Andrea finished the second of their 2 years in office and handed over to new President Ann.

Secretary Yvette continues to send out daily "smiles" which certainly make us chuckle and sometimes even laugh out loud.

8^th May 1945 was VE Day – celebrations of the 75^th anniversary of VE Day were not as originally planned – anywhere! Club members sent in photos of their celebrations at home and also Secretary Yvette compiled a very interesting newsletter containing memories of the big day itself from some of our more senior members.

Banbury Cake for VE Day?
 
One of our members found this "flourless cake" recipe written during the War in the back of an old recipe book – one for our flour free cake collection?

Banbury Cake
½ lb Margarine
4oz sugar
3 tablespoons Warm water
1 teasp vanilla essence
2 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp dried egg
1 tbsp dried milk
1lb broken biscuits

1.     Warm marg and sugar (beat to a cream) add egg and cocoa.
2.     Stir well and add warm water. Then add broken biscuits.
        Do not crush, then stir well.
3.     Put in a cake tin not greased or lined.
4.     Place greaseproof paper on top, then plate and weight.
5.     Leave in cool place for 24 hours no cooking

Daily news reports of the increasing numbers of infections and very sadly numbers of deaths not only in the UK, but also across Europe, is very sobering. We must all try to do what we can to reduce the risk of infection spreading to all of those who we come into contact with. Never before has our Inner Wheel objective of promoting true friendship been so important in these exceptionally difficult times.

This month our secretary Yvette did a cracking job of compiling reports from members on what they have been up to at home. Here are some of the things we have been doing:
•     Working as usual and from home
•     Crafting (including knitting "fish and chip baby" jumpers and hats and other items for charity)
•     Gardening and growing vegetables
•     Doing Jigsaws
•     Baking (if we can get flour and eggs)
•     Online shopping for everything (if we can get delivery slots)
•     Learning how to Zoom and WhatsApp with our families and friends
•     Walking from home for exercise
•     Having medical treatment
•     Decorating at home – both inside and outside
•     Playing garden darts and boules
•     Enjoying Facetime dinners with friends
•     Exercising via Zoom

Our NHS has been doing amazing work and we thank each and every NHS worker, for the huge effort that they continue to make to help those who are ill, especially our members who are on the front line fighting Covid-19. We also thank all key workers for keeping our shops stocked. Every Thursday we stand at our front doors and clap and make noise to say "thank you" to our NHS.

On Monday 23^rd March, Boris Johnson announced to the country that from Tuesday 24^th March 2020 we would be in "lockdown" due to the spreading Covid-19 pandemic. Covid-19 and the measures which we have all had to take to reduce the risk of infection have impacted on everyone's life in the UK. The initial lockdown was for 3 weeks, to be reviewed on an ongoing basis. Our Inner Wheel Club was unable to meet for some time due to Government restrictions. None of us really knew just how long the restrictions would last, but there was an expectation that things would be "back to normal" by the summer – how wrong we were! Supermarket shelves were stripped of tinned tomatoes, pasta, rice, eggs, flour, bread and toilet paper, despite reassurances that there was plenty to go round if folks would just shop as normal. We never thought we would see so many empty shelves.

The speaker at our February meeting was Ruth Riches, who is a member of the District 22 Membership Committee. Ruth gave us a brief personal history, which included how she met her husband when she was in the Territorial Army. She joined Warsop Inner Wheel in 2014.

Our Inner Wheel aims and objectives are:
1.     To promote true friendship
2.     To encourage the ideals of personal service
3.     To foster international understanding.

Ruth reminded us that as part of having fun, and enjoying the friendship which Inner Wheel offers, we can learn new skills and put them to good use, especially when participating in charitable events. She challenged us all to think about what is unique to our Club. We have a specific "bring a friend" night in September, but if you would like to come along to any meeting, please do get in touch – new ladies are always given a warm welcome.

Little did we realise that this was to be our last meeting for some time – something very unpleasant was lurking round the corner . . .