Photograph brings back memories

In their hands they had a pen drive containing, among other things, a black and white digital image of a photograph taken over four decades ago of a troup of Guides which was published in The Sentinel three weeks ago. One of those Guides was Rita when she was 11, but her family did not believe she was in the photo.

Rita (now Walls) returned to Northern Ireland on May 11, 2007, to live in Newtownstewart, while sister Mabel returned here just a year ago in June. The duo were joined four months ago by their eldest sister Jean, and her husband Tom Curley, who set up home in Nora Frazer Court just off Church Brae.

The reason Rita and Mable looked like they were up to no good was because they had discovered a photograph kindly lent to the Sentinel by another reader, in which Rita appears as a chubby-cheeked child of 11 in the second row, fourth Guide in from the left.

“I was in the Chaffinch group in the Guides but cannot remember a soul in the photograph, but would love to hear from any of the other girls also pictured along with me. I have fond memories of the Guides I remember sewing on badges and lighting fires with sticks, which is a great thing for a girl from Northern Ireland to learn I suppose.

“I was never in the Brownies because we only moved into Derry when I was 10, and I went to Derry Cathedral School and then to Templemore. I was 18 when we moved over to England,” she said.

Mable chimes in: “We went over to our eldest sister, Jean and her husband Tom, who were already in Manchester, and I went to Mum and Dad. I was 17 at the time, a mere slip of a girl!”

“I was away from Derry for 42 years before returning in June last year, while Rita was away for 48. We buy the Sentinel every week. We used to have a lady that sent it to us in Manchester,” she said.

Rita adds: “The first thing I did when I got back was order the Sentinel. When I saw myself I got my husband James to run out to the garage and get a magnifying glass and I phoned Mabel and said ‘Do you think it’s me?’and she said yes. So Mabel phoned the paper and then we came in - well they pulled me in here because they don’t believe that it’s me in the photograph. You don’t believe after all those years that something like this will turn up do you?” she said, flabbergasted.

Armed with a pen drive onto which a digital image of the photograph was loaded, the two blondes scurried over to the nearest print shop to get copies for family still in England.

“I was telling my grandson not very long ago after he joined the Cubs that Nana was a Chaffinch in the Guides, and that was what they called the group, and he said he had four badges to get sewn on and that’s how this all started. And then I saw the photograph. Can you imagine me sitting there with the paper spread out and this jumped out at me?” she said to her sister.

Mabel responds: “We scrutinise the paper ever week for anybody we know, and there was my sister.”

Despite being given the easy guide to downloading the image from an email, the pair somehow managed to talk me into loading the image onto my pen-drive so that they could rush to the nearest photo shop to get a clatter of 10x8 copies made, with the promise of returning within the hour. It is now their mission to reacquaint themselves with as many of the Guides in the photo as they can...

So, if anyone remembers Rita (also known as Rachel) or her sisters Mabel and Jean, they are welcome to email their contact details tome at the Sentinel, at olga.bradshaw@jpress.co.uk or phone 028 7134 1175 with your contact details and yours truly will pass it on to the ladies.