Several members of Luton Someries Rotary club took 10 residents of Rowles House, a residential home for the elderly, to Southend for the day.

Carole, Jim,Bronwen, Sandra, Marion, Craig and I plus two non-Rotarians, (Craig's partner Sarah and Marion's cockney Colin), all made our way to Southend. They say the sun shines on the righteous, yet who they were it's hard to say (we chose the hottest day of the summer).

My vote goes to the owner of the home, Norah, who drove the bus containing all of the residents, plus helpers, to Southend and back. The bus is old and kept breaking down and it took almost 3 hours to get there. Norah must be the most patient person known to man and the residents obviously adore her. Whether they adored us Rotarians, by the end of the day, is another matter.

When we eventually arrived at the seaside, the first priority was lunch. We got all of the old people off the bus and into wheelchairs (no mean feat) and managed to sit down together for fish and chips. We then set off to see what Southend had to offer. {josquote}Jim, desperate by this time for a beer,{/joquote} took the only man resident, George, to the pub for a drink and you may have read Jim's account of this. However, George's story is quite different. He said that Southend was far too crowded for him, the beer warm and sparse and his carer (Jim) talked too much. He said that he was really relieved to get back with his colleagues from the home for some intelligent conversation.

Meanwhile, the rest of us took a wheelchair each and walked along the front. Marion's lady was slightly confused and thought Marion was her daughter. She busily castigated Marion for not going to see her more often and told Sandra that she'd let herself go (I've been meaning to talk to Sandra about this). Then it was time for ice creams. Craig, very cleverly, took the order - we were all so impressed with his memory skills - until he came back with 8 ice creams too many - we gave them away to bemused passers by. During this time we were getting frantic phone calls from Jim asking for some respite from George and frantic phone calls from George asked us to rescue him from Jim.

During our trip along the front we witnessed a gathering on the beach of hundreds of Christians, all dressed from head to toe in white. We think it was a mass baptism. Sadly the tide was out so we were unable to see any total submersions.

Eventually, at the end of the day, we got the old people back on the coach and waved them off - George looked very happy.

Since then, I have received a lovely letter from the home saying how much they enjoyed the day and thanking us for giving up our time. Please disregard any of the above comments about Jim and George as I made it all up - apart from the bit about Southend being too crowded!!

Much thanks to Rotarians for their time and patience but most of all to Sarah and Colin who were absolutely brilliant.

Looking forward to next year.

Lynn

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