AU34/21/7/16/35

Letter from R P S Waddy

14 February 1989

From: 1989 To: 1989

A typewritten letter from R P S Waddy (former Rector of St Andrew's, Ampthill) to Honora Grimmer, on headed paper from his new home at Manormead, Hindhead, Surrey: "My dear Nora, Thank you for Church and Town; and for Andrew's article about our time in Ampthill. Your letter arrived this morning, and I am sorry that your January letter has not been yet answered. I moved here three weeks ago, and have spent a good deal of my good deal of unoccupied time writing letters and sending my new address around. Anyway, here it is. And very nice too; sitting room and bedroom, my own bathroom and kitchenette (which I only use to make my own tea, because all our meals are communal) and my own furniture, looking out over a big garden and only in danger of too much sun - and it's a long time since I suffered from that! Stacy our daughter helped to pack me up at the Dorset end (and since the cottage is next door to theirs and belongs to them, I did not have to clear everything out, but just choose what I wanted to bring); Giles Marking her designer husband (of world renown) planned where my stuff could best be put; and Christopher and Sam his wife came up from Kent to instal me at this end. So the move was painless; I drove myself up here in the brightest of sunshine, determined to be safely in before winter broke out - and lo, it hasn't yet. I shall have a tan soon! It is a very friendly place, and I have links with nearly all the 35 residents. None date back to my St. Albans days, although Canon Iball, whom I knew in Birmingham, has a link with Ampthill church through (?) a nephew - I'm not sure. At the far end is a nursing home with 50 old folk, whither we move when we must; and we tend to divide into Us and Them! But we have a pleasant chapel and an array of services, and there is a good parish church five minutes away, where I go Sunday lest I perish, neither of salmonella nor listeria but claustrophobia! I don't know which end Canon Fielder came to see; the snag is that it is easy to say, I can look after myself for another couple of years - but we are only acceptable in the flats if we can look after ourselves, and there is no surety of a vacancy just when we want it - I was offered one out of the blue when I did not expect it, and I am glad to be here. Of course life is different - I have not celebrated the Eucharist since my Do on the Epiphany, whereas in Dorset I did so, and preached every Sunday. But that will right itself in time to some extent. The only subject upon which we become childish is Prayer Book versus ASB; we stick to the Prayer Book fervently, with ASB only on Saints Days! But even that is more fervent than quarrelsome. I think I knew Canon Fielder, not at Luton but later in Leicester: I helped once to produce a schools' prayer-book and he may have shared in that. Leicester where I was ordained made a big thing of my diamond Jubilee, and the preacher at their ordination quoted the only scrap of spiritual advice I could recall from 60 years ago - Shave Every Day. He had great pleasure in repeating this to a gang of ordinands, most of them heavily bearded. The Epiphany service was quite lovely; sunshine, flag flying, bells ringing, the Bishop of Salisbury to preach; and a grand lunch - more than 100 people on a Friday morning. And someone had the bright idea of culling from my sermons and articles of the past ten years. Father Pat's Sayings, sprayed as grafitti round the west end of the church! Alas, I did not get a record of them; so I must embark on a new lot for the next ten years! So it was a good farewell to a splendid era. Havana, Stacy's daughter, is having a wonderful term at a Delhi school, a change from a Bryanston, well taught and making lots of friends; a great achievement of her own enterprise. Stacy is back with the BBC; Giles has jobs in Istanbul, two in India and others scattered round Europe - he too loves travel. And Christopher is in good heart. Yours affectionately, Pat Stacy Waddy"

item

Grimmer, Honora Patricia Annie,
Waddy, Richard Patteson Stacy,
Underwood, Andrew,
Marking, Stacy,
Marking, Giles,
Marking, Havana,
Waddy, Christopher,
Waddy, Sam,
Iball,
Fielder,
British Broadcasting Corporation,
BBC

CORRESPONDENCE, parish magazines, nursing homes, church services, Bishop, Rector, Jubilee, ordination, schools, AMPTHILL, Hindhead, Guildford, Surrey, Leicester, Salisbury, Delhi, Istanbul, India