HELEN WARRINGTON (BOND) would like to be over from Canada next year; this year she and Michael have been travelling around visiting their ever increasing family, 10 grandchild had recently arrived at the time of writing BARBARA EGGINTON (ADAMSON)'s husband Leslie was unwell.

AVALON EASTMAN (HUTCHINS) had a nephew visiting from Australia. SISTERS RUTH, JOAN & MAY, all on the Isle of Wight, were sorry not to be able to come. SISTERS BERNARDINE & ROSA in London sent apologies.

ANNE - MARIE BUTEMONT (WINSTANLEY) sent love and best wishes, especially to those whom she taught. She was busy marking A/S Spanish papers. Anne-Marie would love to hear from any of her former pupils.

ALLISON (AKA DOROTHY) DREW (HANCOCK) would have loved to be present but was involved in annual LAMDA exams in Speech and Drama. She is happy for me to pass on her email details to friends who would like to contact her.

ANNE SHOTLANDER (SPICER) & NILO SHOWELL (YIANNAKI) both send love and best wishes. Anne is also in touch with CLARE ANDERSON & with CAROLINE ADAMS, who lives in Canada.

THERESA ENTWISTLE (SUTTON) was on holiday, she sent her best wishes.

MARIA DIXON (TRUE) was recovering from painful dental work on the previous Friday.

MARGARET JONES(THORNE) was celebrating her birthday.

MARGARET JAQUES (MASON) was away on holiday.

YVONNE PENN (THIOLLIER) was unable to get down this year.

FRANCES McKAY (THIELE) had a family reunion that weekend. At our Reunion I asked for prayers for her husband Alan, who had just been diagnosed with cancer in the lung area, he was due to have an operation shortly. On 4th September I received an e-mail from Frances with the good news that, following the removal of the tumour and lymph nodes, they were found to be non malignant, they thank us for our prayers.

RENZA CRADDUCK also sent apologies and best wishes to all; as did BROTHER RALPH LOFTUS. August 11th was the 2nd anniversary of the death of Bro. Ralph's sister, NORAH (SISTER MARY AGNES).

PAULINE BROWNING, who rarely misses a reunion, was recovering from a hip replacement operation, she sent best wishes to all.

BARBARA TANNER (BROWNING) has made a good recovery from the mild stroke she suffered at the end of 2006, but was not up to the train journey this year.

Our President JEAN WALSH (HUGHES) was disappointed to have missed, possibly the only time she has, but at the end of May Jean had a leg amputated, in Exeter Hospital, she now has a prosthetic leg and before leaving the Rehabilitation Unit she was determined to learn how to get up and down some steps, as she loves to go away with Angie in her Motorhome; I'm sure that the Reunion 2008 is on her list of things to do I She has sent us this message, written during October.

"To all members and friends of the Association.

Thank you all so much for all your messages, kind thoughts and prayers for my well being. It has been a long drag but I am getting on well. I may get home by the end of the month. Thanks to all the nurses, specialists, carers and Doctors I can nearly walk. I am already making home visits in the company of a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist.

I hope that you enjoyed your Summer holiday and now look forward to Christmas and the year 2008 to follow. Again many thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Jean Walsh (Hughes)"

Angie added a note for us too; she has been wonderful the way she has kept us up to date with information all the way through via her 'Sidmouth Bulletins,' the last one I received, on 31St October, was no. 63. The bulletins were always full of humour, despite the worry and weariness Angie must have been experiencing. I thank her most sincerely, her parents are truly blessed to have such a daughter.
God bless her. She wrote:

" Mum has done really well, we are all very proud of her. It was her determination that has pulled her through. The staff at the Rehabilitation Unit have been fantastic and they are amazed at her progress, they keep saying she is their star patient. Yes she has now done 3 home visits, each time she does a visit she stays longer and now she has a personal alarm they are going to do some visits where she is on her own for a few hours.

It is now just over five months since she was last home and went into hospital. They are aiming to get her home the last week of October so she is home for her birthday."

Thursday 8th November -- One week after Jean's return an outreach worker from the Rehab. Unit, where Jean was for 4 months, visited and was very impressed by the way Jean is managing.

We are very impressed by and grateful to all those who send their apologies, showing us that they are thinking of us and sending their good wishes. It makes us feel that our work is appreciated and worthwhile. As you see many of the communications contain snippets of information, sure to be of interest to those who remember them. As there was such an impressive list this year, I wrote it out in large letters and put it up on view for all to peruse. Thank you.

This year the committee decided to employ the School caretaker to put up and later remove the tables and chairs for us, pandering to our advancing years and creaking joints.

We felt the advantage of this service and thank the Head Teacher, JULIE - ANNE CUTLER (MATTHEWS) for her co-operation. We thank the St. Peters Past Pupils' Association for the loan of cups and saucers and especially TOMMY BROWNING, who collects and returns them for us. The Handmaids of The Sacred Heart always lend us their big teapots too, we are grateful to them.

FRANK BROOKS plans the preparation of the beds and planting of the sweet pea seeds in the hope that the blooms will be at their best for the 1st Sunday in July; alas he has no control over the weather and the worry was that the winds and rain this year would batter them. However he was able to produce enough for each table.

In August he celebrated his 80th birthday, and received several Garden Centre Tokens as gifts, he has already made preparations and selected seeds which we hope will be extra special this year. His flowers make such a difference to the appearance of the Hall and people love to be given a few to take home with them. Thank you, Frank.

Despite the fact that CHRISTINE BROCKLEHURST (PLACE) had officially resigned as Treasurer and that she also had a heavy cold she came and very kindly 'held the fort', collecting subscriptions. We are very grateful to her and to EILEEN HUGHES, who has agreed to take over the job.

THERESA McINTYRE was present in her newly created role of Membership Secretary, we are sure that Eileen and Theresa will be a great asset to the Association.

We were pleased to welcome JOSEPHINE JACKSON (LIDSTONE) who travelled down from Scotland. You may remember that Josephine was coming last year for the 70 year olds reunion, which was organized by JANE O'BRIEN (THURGOOD); when she got to the airport they said that she didn't have the 'right' identification, although she had a perfectly good document with a photo, and wouldn't allow her to fly !

STEPHANIE JOHNSON (HOARE) & her sister PENNY BEATHAM (HOARE) had worked to organize a meeting of their year groups, initially they had quite a good response and I made sure that there was a table available for them to sit together. Unfortunately, in the end, only a few were able to attend; disappointing for them but we hope that they enjoyed getting together.

We were able to welcome some new members. PENNY BEATHAM (HOARE), who also paid the subscription for SHUNA BOYD, who lives in Sydney, Australia; JACKIE SULLIVAN & TINA HARDING( FOX).

Another new member is JOY WINTERBOTTOM, Joy had made contact with Sr. RUTH BROWN, who included a copy of a Newsletter with her letter of reply. JOY was at school with RUTH, EILEEN HUGHES, PAM BRIGDEN (BUTLER), HELEN WARRINGTON (BOND), DAPHNE TAVENDER ( HOPGOOD ), VERONICA WHITE, MARIE TARRANT (BROWNE), MARY BROOKS( BROWNING), others will remember Joy too.

We are hoping to organize a get together of our age group, maybe in the Spring, at a venue between London and Bournemouth.

THEA TURNER (HORSLEY) keeps in touch with JOAN REED; we welcome JOAN as a new member.