Each week at St Giles’ Church we pray for all the people who live or work in a particular road in the Parish. During March we will pray for the following roads: 4th March -Three Oaks Close. 11th March - Vinlake Avenue. 18th March - Vyners Way. 25th March - Wallasey Crescent
If you live in one of these roads why not join us at our 8 a.m. or 9.45 a.m. services. You will be most welcome.
Recently the team has lost several of its valued volunteers hence more of them are needed even more urgently than usual.
The next Sunday when volunteers are needed to collect patients from wards for Communion services in the hospital chapel is: Hillingdon Hospital on 18th March. More dates will be published in future months. This small service is very much appreciated by patients who have no family available to help them. To continue this service we need to supplement our regular team with more volunteers to provide cover for unavoidable absences. Anyone who is prepared to spend a couple of hours on occasional Sunday mornings, please contact Alan Grove on 020 8868 9220.
On 12th February a packed congregation in St Giles’ Church paid its respect to the passing of one of the congregation’s best-loved members. Daphne was a devout Christian and died on 2nd February after a short illness. She will be missed greatly by everyone whose life she touched.
We send our sincere condolences to her husband Roger, sister Audrey, and the entire extended family.
Daphne was born in Greenford, and grew up there with her two brothers and two sisters. She went to Stanhope School and then to Harrow Technical College where she followed a secretarial studies course. Leaving there at sixteen, Daphne began working for Zurich Insurance, and didn’t leave until she retired.
In 1950, her first job was in the typing pool along with fifty others under the watchful glare of the supervisor. No breaks before lunch! She retired in 1995 as secretary to the Head of the UK operation, having worked for several former post-holders. They moved on, but Daphne remained, which speaks so highly of her trustworthiness, loyalty and absolute confidentiality.
Even an offer to be personal assistant to the Bishop of London didn’t tempt her away from the firm that she served so loyally, and that valued her so highly.
Many of us know of Daphne’s commitment to St Giles’ Church, but her Christian faith was very important to her all her life. She grew up attending the Holy Redeemer Church in Greenford, where she served as Sunday School teacher, Choir Mistress and Organist. When she moved from Greenford to South Ruislip, she attended St Mary’s, and started worshipping at St Giles’ when she brought a house in Lawrence Drive twenty years ago.
It is difficult to do justice to everything Daphne did at St Giles’. She repaired altar frontals, refurbished kneelers and made over two-dozen of them, washed and prepared the altar linen with great aplomb. She served on the Parochial Church Council, was ICN Advertising Secretary for many years, taught in the Sunday School, organised the sidesmen’s rota, supported all the traditional style services, and attended musical recitals.
It is impossible to assess the impact of the huge number of acts of kindness she performed. Most remain only in the hearts of those who received them.
Daphne was an excellent cook and relished the thought of preparing dinner parties and lunches and she loved wine and champagne, although sherry definitely had to be dry! She enjoyed the challenge of the Telegraph crossword, which she regularly finished with ease, and had an excellent knowledge of London buses and trains, knowing exactly which carriage to sit in to be as close as possible to the platform exit.
Daphne found a real soul mate in Roger and they enjoyed fifteen extremely happy years together. There were regular visits to Germany to see Roger’s daughter Louise, and her children who loved their grandma, and she adored them too.
Daphne had a wonderful sense of humour, which she kept to the end, enabling her to cope with the pain and discomfort she was experiencing.
Daphne and Roger enjoyed many trips together, visiting places in this country and abroad, including five holidays in Canada. The most notable of these included watching, from a specially constructed and secure hideout platform, grisly bears salmon fishing. This is possibly the only time Daphne ever wore trousers because it involved putting on an orange boiler suit! This was tolerated because Daphne was ‘mad’ about bears.
Daphne had a very good heart, was a good neighbour, a wonderful wife, sister, stepmother and Grandma, and a devout Christian.
Our rector had the privilege of praying with her and anointing her with oil less than twenty-four hours before she died. It was a deeply spiritual experience in which the presence of God was evident giving Daphne a sense of peace about the future. She didn’t fear death because she trusted her Lord and Saviour, and through this received the fullest and most complete healing of all.
Edited from the address given by The Revd. Adrian Guthrie
On behalf of my family, I would like to thank everyone who made a donation to the Stroke Association in John's memory. A fantastic total of £1552.70 was raised.
I have been overwhelmed with cards, letters and offers of help for which I am most grateful and thankful. I count myself very fortunate to live in such a caring community.
Bobbie Foxford
