Page 289 - She's One Crazy Lady!

with the WI logo visible and on it a handbell, a vase of freshly cut garden flowers, two glasses and a jug of water covered by a lacy top. In the corner I espied the shape of a piano covered by dark, faded velvet cloth. In another corner was a serving hatch where dozens of teacups were neatly laid out... and cake! Large, mouth-watering cakes! I was made to feel very welcome and invited to sit with the President to listen to the business matters of the group and that of the national WI updates; they had several social functions lined up that sounded rather good and they were involved in several very worthwhile initiatives both locally, nationally and worldwide – it was very interesting.
Ting-a-ling! The president was on her feet ringing the little bell. “Right ladies, please stand.”
The dark velvet cloth was whipped off the piano and I knew what was next. Jerusalem! Thankfully, I knew the words and sang along confidently with them, the pianist playing with a lot of gusto, as were the ladies with their singing!
“Now a prayer for the speaker.” The President spoke so warmly about how lucky they were to get this month’s speaker...
“Perhaps the speaker would like to respond?”
Silence. I looked round thinking someone would eventually say something. The President coughed and eyed me. Reality hit me... I was the speaker! My experience of having to take impromptu assemblies came to the fore and I was able to respond in a similar way to her prayer and thanked them for inviting me.
“Thank you Glennis. Now ladies, let’s hear what she has to say. Shall we say no more than an hour?”
An hour!! All eyes were on me. I still had no plan, no notes, no visual aids, just my voice, so I put on a confident air and began – by saying that my usual audience would be children and explained honestly that this was my first talk and joked that I wasn’t there to talk about hats, or even tea towels, but to share with them, the story of what we had done so far, how the idea of Crazy Hats began and why, and what we hoped to achieve. I kept it lively and really enjoyed myself. I felt so relaxed and felt I’d got their full attention for it was so quiet. This was the case almost all of the time, one lady writing to me and saying:
“I was in attendance at the Irchester WI last evening and just wanted to contact you to congratulate you on an excellent talk. Most speakers, to the disgust of many of us, have to compete with the chitter chatter of members who haven’t seen each other since the previous month, but last night was different. You had a captive audience. Your experience and determination are inspirational and leave me wanting to hear more. WRITE YOUR STORY GLENNIS! I am positive that you will have no problem whatsoever getting it published and it will sell millions. People like me, who see colleagues and friends suffer and lose their life to breast cancer, need to be able to know what they are going through. It sometimes feels awkward and intrusive asking so many questions but if you can read somebody’s experience it makes it easier. Thank you
“Now a
prayer for the speaker.”
The President spoke so warmly about how lucky they were to get
this month’s speaker... “Perhaps
the speaker would like to respond?” Silence. ”
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