Letters to Ann

Dear Ann,

After writing to you about the mansion & all we experienced while there, I would like to add to this to tell you about the more serious things: the work that the fine ladies who organised the charity event do for the needy, as I can relate to that very well.

I do not know (but intend to find out) how often the ladies meet to do all their craft work & how many there are. They are also to be commended on the ability to work together so well that a function as I described to you in the last letter can be held so successfully as these things don’t ‘just happen’, they have to be well organised.

I did forget to mention the lovely young lass that was working hard at the fund raiser & looked very beautiful reminding me so much of my Grand Daughter, Riley. I mentioned this to the lass & asked if I could take her photo. I did say it was obvious that she was the film star in attendance!

You will see what I mean when you look at the picture. She didn’t smile when the photo was being taken but afterwards she smiled & thanked me. She looked more than ever like Riley as she revealed the braces on her teeth, just like Riley when when she had them over three years!!

One of the members of the ladies who have been doing this wonderful work is a very good friend of both Cheryl & myself, Yvonne. You will see Yvonne in one of the photos sitting at the table, she is the thin one with the beautiful smile!

Yvonne & Cheryl have been friends for years & used to work together in one of our leading dress shops. The good sales girl she is, she also sells a few Christmas puddings for me among her friends! Yvonne is a real live wire.

When she contracted cancer of the stomach two years ago, she went through a thirteen hour operation that was very successful. I sit opposite her at Prime Timers & her Mum sits next to me. She did say to me one day that she knew her daughter would overcome cancer with her zest for life & she certainly did.

She has been given the all clear & even though she lost a lot of weight, she is looking & keeping wonderfully well. In addition to the marvellous medical team that Yvonne had, I must also say that a lot of prayers are offered from our Prime Timers & miracles do happen.

Getting back to the fund raising day. One of the ladies talked to us about the work the ladies do & was very fluent. The talk was excellent & it is quite astounding & outstanding what these ladies have achieved.

Quite a while back some of them became aware of the poverty experienced by communities living in the mountain area of the Philippines where poverty was only recognised if they were starving & had no food. They were even selling their own children to get money & the poverty that our people witnessed was appalling.

They started by sponsoring children & putting them through school, which was difficult in itself but education is where one starts. Over the years many of the children have since graduated through university, but of course a lot of water went under the bridge before that happened.

The ladies (I am going to refer to them as the Hearts & Hands Club) must have really banded together because between them all they have gone to the Philippines & up into the mountains to supply these needy people with things they needed in which to use their hands.

This could have been anything to do with craft work like cotton, wool, beads, materials etc. With these necessities they taught them personally to crochet, knit, make jewellery & craft work to sell.

As they raised more money they bought them sewing machines & showed them how to use them. You can imagine how they built the morale amongst these communities. It didn’t end in one community but they ultimately tutored several communities.

Wonderful things happened to these people & they gradually learnt to be self proficient. I am passing over a lot to just tell you the facts. It didn’t all happen over night but took a lot of dedicated time to build morale & confidence.

In the present day the communities who have been blessed with the Hearts & Hands Club now supply craft to a large number of stores. These communities have gone forward in leaps & bounds as they work steadily at their craft work; look after their families & make a worth while life for themselves.

The lass talking to us said they also educated the community in personal hygiene, supplying the necessaries for them to use.

She went on to tell a heart warming story by saying they even showed them how to paint their nails & toenails. On one occasion she went to the Philippines, but didn’t let the people know she was coming. She was delighted when she showed up on this surprise visit to see that all the ladies had painted each others nails, which was proof of how they had really taken to heart all that the Hearts & Hand Club had offered them.

The lass who talked to us in detail for well over half an hour was fabulous & you could tell the dedication within their own Club & how proud they were of their results, which is an ongoing thing as more communities are taken under their wings.

All present at that fund raiser was wrapt in this talk, so much so that Cheryl is going to get her to come along & give the same talk at Prime Timers.

For me, I was more than wrapt as I could relate to so much of what the lass was saying. I have, for many years, been interested in the poverty stricken people of the Philippines. We might moan from time to time about our own fate, but compared to others we live in a God given country which supplies & looks after us extremely well.

Even with loss of properties in floods & cyclones we have people here who rally round to help & we are blessed in so many things that we simply take for granted. Seeing the need in the world makes us realise how fortunate we are.

Years ago my husband & I got interested in the Philippine people. I forget how this happened, but I know we were keen to help the needy & somehow we were led to the Philippines & a lot of people there.

We started off by sponsoring a little girl called Marita with whom we corrresponded & also with her carer, Florence Panlilio. Then, like the Hearts & Hands Club, we decided to go over & meet our little girl.

I will never forget the day we met her & Florence. It was surreal & a strong bond was held with both of them for many years. We made sure Marita went to Uni & graduated.

We brought Florence to Australia & she stayed for many weeks in our home. We also took her to Tasmania to meet our families. She had a major heart problem & I was fortunate enough to know a medical practitioner who had immigrated from the Philippines to whom I introduced her & we had a lavish dinner in his home.

From then on this good doctor took care of medication for Florence. I am happy to say that recently, I met Juan, her son, on Facebook after losing contact with the family some time back. I am happy to say that Florence – same age as me – is still with us.

I could write a book about all that happened in those years. as your own experiences encourage you to share with others. Philip & his wife at the time, Jenni, sponsored a little girl as well.

Then because I had a position in Tupperware as a Distributor I influenced others to sponsor a child. In all seventeen were sponsored. I also used to make sponge cakes & sell them to the Tupperware girls etc. & so on.

Talking about food, I could relate very well to what our lass was talking about because I made a number of trips to the Philippines in those years. I remember one thing in particular.

We were staying at a noted hotel & Max & I were going on a bus trip up to the mountains after breakfast one day. We wrapped up most of our breakfast that was portable & took it with us.

Half way up the mountain the bus stopped for us to have a stretch & we were inundated with a number of the needy children bombarding us with shell necklaces for sale. However, when we brought out the left over breakfast I will never forget the reaction: sales for the necklaces were forgotten as they rushed for the food!

I went to the Philippines on my own once, which was also memorable. We had a friend in Newcastle called John who was a seaman. He was home for a couple of weeks before he set sail again for the Philippines & the ship was docking in Manila.

At that time I had started doing Christmas puddings in earnest & John offered to take a couple of cartons with him on board for Florence & her needy family & friends. Then it was arranged that I would meet him over there, collect the puddings so I could deliver them to Florence & her flock.

I look back on that trip & realise how much gall I had, although I prefer to call it determination. John had to sneak the cartons of goodies off the ship.

This took two attempts which meant I was meeting him where his ship was docked at the wharf & had to go back a second time. A bit scary on your own in a place like the Philippines!

When he finally got them out we then had to give the guard at the gate a pudding to let us through with them. I will never forget that night. The people who were to receive those puddings knew about them & were anxiously awaiting for their arrival. I know of one man who was yelling out to Florence one night saying “Where IS my pudding?”!! They were hungry!.

John delivered the puddings to my smart hotel with me & left them in my room until it was okay for me to give them to the recipients. Then John took me to dinner & we walked around Manila as he showed me some sights.

Of course, where would a sailor go but to the red light district! Only at that time I was so naive that I didn’t fully recognise it for what it was.

John led me into a little cafe where we sat at a bar & had a coffee. It was there that he explained that the waitress was looking daggers at me because she thought I was taking her man! I did learn a bit about sailors too! Maybe they do have a girl in every port.

However, John was a perfect gentleman with me: he delivered me back to my room; we shook hands & I thanked him in words at how much I had appreciated his help & reminded him he had a wife back home!

I could tell you such a lot about my experiences in the Philippines especially on one trip when my loveable young nephew accompanied me.

It was all coming back to mind when the lass was talking about the Hearts & Hands Club. It could be said that maybe the Club could forego some of the opulence like fresh flowers etc. but I don’t feel like that.

It is my thought from my own experience that those who have plenty & can be opulent should live as they want to live because I know I wouldn’t have given anything up in that regard, but I was quite willing to give money which I could afford.

It was enough that I was in a position to be able to afford to do what I could which was a mere drop in the ocean when it comes to the Hearts & Hands Club. No doubt all those trips to the Philippines came out of the donors pockets, as mine did, but they still go there with their hearts full of love & heaps of care as their hands teach other hands to assist them in enjoying a life they never dreamed of.

It can honestly be said that the Hearts & Hands Club give more than material things, they give the best gifts of all to those in need which is Love & Care.

Love from my heart to you too, Dawn X O X O

Dear Ann,

It was a fortnight ago & my friend, Cheryl asked if I would like to go to something different on Saturday, 25th March.2016. Of course I would.  I am all for something new on the horizon, so she bought the tickets for us to attend a fund raising event.

What was different about this particular fund raiser was that it was to be held in the home of a friend at a suburb called Belmont. It was opposite a well known & very old popular restaurant called Squid’s Ink that Max & I had frequented on occasions, many moons ago. Little did I know that just opposite, hidden by palm trees was the house we would be walking into last Saturday.

Now in no way should I be calling it a house. It was certainly a home but also it was a mansion. No one would have known what was hidden behind those palms.

When Cheryl drove up the dead end side street we took no notice & didn’t even see the house. Partially the reason for this was the fact that so many cars were parked on the side of the road in the little dead end street & we were also looking for a place to park.

Cheryl being the good driver she is, managed to squeeze her lovely car somewhere in between two others. Then we walked down to where we were going where there were two drives leading to the front door, one on either side of the grassy glade with the palm trees in the middle.

I should have taken a photo of this but I had no idea it was going to lead to a mansion as I have never been in one before. I have been in grand homes, but never in a mansion & I was impressed.

Even when I got to the front door I was impressed. There before us was an entrance before we got into the main entrance. This is hard to describe, but I hope you know what I mean & it was almost all glass.

It had a sign outside the front door to let all know that inside was a function to raise money for what is known as “Hearts & Hands’.

We stepped inside the front door into a glass space stepping into the vestibule & what a sight confronted us. I didn’t open my mouth & gape at the grandeur as I consider that I could take my place in Buckingham Palace if I had to but I knew I was in a palatial mansion & it almost took my breath away!

It wasn’t just me that felt like this, but also Cheryl & I told you how beautiful her place is. I also considered that the home Max & I had lived in – prior to moving to where I am now – was not just an ordinary house, but one of note that people wanted to walk into & view it all, which they did! Our home there was considered to be quite opulent, but not to be compared to a mansion.

This was a most beautiful home & I will try to describe what we walked into in the vestibule. To start with it cost us $15 entry fee, & we were very happy to pay that.

All around the vestibule & most beautifully arrayed was a massive supply of all the craft work the ladies belonging to this group had made. I could not begin to even explain how many different crafts were on show, but almost immediately I walked in I saw crotched, knitted & padded coat hangers which looked so pretty.

I have had a yen for those to hang woollens on & every time I have been to the Maeter Hospital when I had to see my cancer doctors I would purchase some from the trade table in the hall. The ones in front of me on this occasion were just so pretty I chose all the pretty colours to match the woollen garments on which I wanted to hang them.

There were truly so many different craft things that I can’t begin to describe what they all were. Just imagine all the different craft work you can think of & I will guarantee the same kind would hsve been in that vestibule & more.

It was all so beautifully arrayed & very tempting. I picked up a cute little medium sized bag handy to use for a few things in mind at the time. Then I went on to purchase raffle tickets for the hand made quilts & so it went on.

I forgot to say, behind all this activity was a big recess with white pebbles for the floor & black pebbles forming the words ‘Tea Party’ with a little table holding tiny cups & saucers & teddy bears sitting on the chairs.

By this time we were opposite the lounge room which actually took our breath away. It was huge (the photo I took did not do it justice) & the big bay windows at the end of it looked out onto our Lake Macquarie. I ascertained later that all the windows had been programmed to look out over the lake which was magnificent & what a good reason to get up in the morning to view the scene!

I also ascertained that all the downstairs part of the home that we were in was very demure as it was all cream, white & glass. The lounges & chairs were upholstered in cream, the carpets were cream, the glass tables sponsored little cakes of every kind, & all home made. Cheryl & I whispered to each other, “And they eat over that lovely carpet!”

Cheryl & I spoke to the hostess & I asked if I could take some photos. She was a very humble lady, told us they had lived in their home for 22 years & could honestly say it had been a real home for their family, even the carpet had been down all that time, which was amazing as it was all the way up the staircase which looked grand.

Now the staircase was equivalent to the one in the film ‘Gone With The Wind’ & very impressive. it was no wonder Cheryl & I were a bit ‘ga ga’ but we didn’t show it. We sadly missed our friend, Sandra who would have also loved it, but she was in hospital.

After we did our shopping spree we walked into the kitchen/ dining area to more ‘sumptuousness.’  Everywhere there were home made savouries & cakes sitting at every table that would have done anyone proud.

I hadn’t seen such a huge amount of cream cakes & all that luscious stuff since the last family reunion (when I was too sick to participate)! However, all these little cakes & tempting delights were in tiny portions.

It was all very much like a ‘high tea.’ Even though I have never been to one except in Harrods of London, but I know what ‘high tea ‘ is. And we made the most of it!

I just have to tell you about that kitchen that was the size of Micheles Patisserie, with about fifteen people making coffee & tea, cutting up more cakes & generally looking after the visitors.

There was a wide bench between the kitchen & the dining room. & the floor in both areas was all white tiles. The dining area held quite a number of tables etc. At the end of the dining part there was a cream carpeted bay shaped area holding two big cream lounges &, of course, looking out over the lake where lots of boats were moored or in use.

Outside this big glass bay window was another big bay area which housed a spa bath set down in the floor, but still overlooking the lake. You could just imagine being in there holding a glass of crisp cool white wine!

To get back to the kitchen, Cheryl & I sat with others around the glass table with all the little sweet & savoury titbits beside us. A lovely lady was working at the bench & made us a magnificent cappuccino with all the proper machines, everything in this home was the real thing, no substitutes!

Beside these working ladies was a table set up with punch bowls with taps on to pour your cool drink – I thought my crystal ones were grand but…!

On the other side of the room near another table of tiny cakes & savouries was another table sporting two fondue machines which continually dripped melted chocolate over the side. Next to this was a huge bowl of strawberries & marshmallows ready for the dipping.

And still I haven’t mentioned the flower arrangements in every possible place. The arrangements were absolutely beautiful & took your breath away.

The whole place was opulent & magnificent. It could be said that maybe less could be spent & more money donated to the charity for which they were working. I may say more on this in another letter as I still have lots to tell you in connection with this day.

Suffice to say that I don’t really know the amount raised for their charity, but at a rough guess it was probably a few thousands dollars which is a great effort from some very dedicated people.

With my little camera, my photos do not give justice to what it was actually like as I was trying to take them in & around people which meant I was not always in the right spot. However, I hope you enjoy them & what is not shown in this letter will probably come to the fore in my next letter when I try to explain what these ladies have done for those in need.

I love you dear friend. Dawn X O X O

Dear Ann,

I have often said to you that you have to have a reason to get up in the morning. It was my pudding pal, Pat Cox, who first made this remark. I don’t know what made her say it, but she did say it one day when we were working in the Pudding Kitchen & I thought at the time no truer word was ever spoken.

To say that I have quoted it a few times is an understatement as it is one of my favourite sayings & should be recorded in the book that my dear friend Sharon gave me when I first visited Burbank. It is titled The Quotable Woman & is a delightful book quoting favourite sayings from famous women. My friend Pat may never be famous on a global scale but to me she is worthy of a lot of accolades.

A mutual friend brought Pat into my life many years ago when I was in need of some good stalwart workers in the Pudding Kitchen & she was recommended to me. This resulted in us employing Pat &, along with Judy whom I have told you about.

I could not have had two more diligent & dedicated employees. They never looked at the clock waiting for knock off time as a lot of workers do. They gave more than one hundred percent of themselves & adapted to any task needed doing at the time it was needed. This meant that they could handle any part of the business from mixing, to weighing out, tying up puddings in their little cloths, boiling them, hanging them on the line when it was time & then decorating & despatching them.

As I have mentioned to you in my letter about our star, Judy, she very quickly became the person who was a natural at dealing with orders & getting them packed on time. Pat also very soon came to the fore with the skill of getting the puddings decorated as needed for each individual order & have them done in time for Judy to pack & despatch. The two of them worked together so well you would think they could read each others mind.

There were times when we needed staff to work back to get the orders done in time & decorating was a very important part. Each order had to be decorated as the order stipulated. This could mean different assortments of cellophane or cloths & countless colours in ribbon to cut & of course each cover & each ribbon had to be cut to the size required.

I know there were many times when Judy took material home to cut so that we would have enough to work with next day. Likewise with Pat, she would take ribbon home & bring it back in the morning all ready for use. These commodities amounted to thousands of pieces of material or cellophane & thousands of certain lengths of ribbon.

Husband Max would be out in the office cutting string for dear life to tie up thousands of puddings, plus stamping labels with ‘use by’ date & all that had to be shown. Dawn would probably be walking around a table for 8 hours a day weighing out the correct weight of puddings to be tied up & boiled next. We had to be ahead all the time so that no time was lost in waiting for anything to be done & we needed good workers.

With all that ribbon cutting it didn’t take Pat long to perfect it as she solicited her good husband, Colin, to come up with a few little devices in wood so that the correct length could be quickly wound around it & then cut in bulk. These were introduced to the kitchen.

Sometimes it would be bedlam with getting things done on time, but as I look back over those years the two people who stand out as dedicated people were Judy & Pat.

I remember one time when I was not available, nor anybody else, to do some important decorating for an urgent order. I don’t know if you are familiar with a health problem called Polio Myalgia ,which affects the limbs, but Pat was suffering with this complaint at the time. It was hard for her to even use her arms & hands. She could not even comb her hair, but because there was no one else to do the order, she came back to work one night, in pain & did the job. You can’t get much more dedication than that.

It is no wonder then that Pat, Judy & I have remained friends well after the pudding business was sold in 2003. From then on we met every Monday fortnight for lunch at Micheles Patisserie until I came out of hospital two years ago with the thought of a death sentence from cancer hanging over my head. The two girls then decided we should meet weekly instead.

I remember leaving the table one day for a few minutes & when I returned I was given the verdict! I knew they had conferred in my absence & made this decision, because I was not going to live much longer! It has been my pleasure to prove them wrong.

Ever since we meet every Monday & have spent thousands of hours together & blown out the candle on a little cup cake to celebrate a birthday more times than we care can count!

And so it was that on the 18th March, 2017 we had another cup cake candle to extinguish & Pat was to do the honours. It was her 80th Birthday & there never was a woman born that belied here age so much without cosmetic surgery.

Though there has been huge ups & downs in her life she does not look a day over sixty. This must be due to the placid nature she portrays. Although her friends have been known to get very rattled & upset at times when the going was tough, we have never heard our dear Pat raise her voice.

She is one of those gorgeous girls who finds it difficult to be hard to get along with, remaining softly spoken, say what needs to be said without anyone needing to turn over in their grave!

It has not only been the Pudding Kitchen that endears me to Pat. There have been other times as well.

When Max was taken to hospital very ill, just six months after we had moved to this villa, Pat made it her business to tell me to call her at any time, day or night if I needed someone to talk to. She also iterated this after Max passed when she & Colin came almost daily to put the jungle garden I inherited into something more attractive.

I appreciated this more than I can say. Even now that the garden has been given a big face lift the little plants that Colin studiously planted around the garden to make a hedge remains there today, proud & tall. Pat Cox made a big impact on my life.

So on the 18th March it was a privilege to celebrate Pat’s 80th birthday & she blew out her candle in one puff! Judy & I had flowers & an exceptionally lovely 80th card for an exceptionally lovely person. Plus we gave her a photo frame with 80th Birthday written on it holding a photo of the three of us taken on some previous birthday.

And as I have been writing this & reliving moments mentioned I am not ashamed to say that the memories have choked up my eyes a little!!

Friendships are a very important part of our lives, one could not imagine what life would be without friends. I am looking at my wonderful book The Quotable Woman & I have this little quotation from someone I have never heard of called Letty Cottin Pogresin is worthy of mention:

Friendships aren’t perfect & yet they are precious. For me, not expecting perfection all in one place was a great release.

How very true.

And Ann, the short friendship I had with you I have treasured & it will go with me to my grave. Like you so often said to me. “I wish I had known you twenty years earlier’.

God’s Blessings Dear Heart, Dawn X O X O