Remembering Holly

Wow, 20 years of Caring Matters Now, who’d have thought that the seeds sown all those years ago would have grown into such a strong and bene cial entity. Co-incidentally, it would have been our Holly’s 18th birthday this year so what a better way to celebrate than to join in with the CMN coffee and cake weekend and see what we can do to help the cause.

Sometimes you cannot anticipate how wonderful people can be and, yet again, the generosity, both nancially and in terms of human spirit, came to the fore. Yes, the usual friends and family who always step up to the mark when asked for help, supported our CMN coffee and cake morning. Most of our friends and family know our history and Holly’s part in it. However, the tremendous support from those who knew nothing (or little) of Holly was stunning, both on the day itself and leading up to and after the event. People came out of the woodwork to make cakes and donate funds, even if they were not able to come on the day.

Remembering HollyThe day itself couldn’t have been more perfect as far as weather and turnout was concerned. In fact, people were having such a good time they didn’t want to leave – thank goodness we had enough cakes, scones and sausage rolls to keep them all happy! Our youngest daughter Meg and her lovely friends helped out. What a happy, thoughtful bunch they all are and to think that if we hadn’t gone through what we did with Holly, Meg might not have been part of our lives today. Martin’s eldest daughter, Anna, paid a surprise visit with her boyfriend from London and everyone contributed to the great atmosphere – to be honest, it was more like an all day party and to be totally truthful it had turned into a cakes and wine event by early evening!

People, unsurprisingly, were very generous before and on the day and even now, two weeks later, we are still receiving donations that we need to forward on. What a lovely day it was to remember Holly and to contribute towards such a wonderful cause run by such a great team of dedicated people. We will obviously never forget Holly but equally we will never forget the support from Caring Matters Now and the tremendous strides that have been made over the last 20 years.

Martin, Jackie, Meg and Anna Thirkettle