MEMBERS were taken on a tour of the globe – two and a half times – by guest speaker Ishbel Veitch, a Soroptimist with the Guildford club.
She painted a picture of a fascinating and fun life that had begun in Dunedin, New Zealand, 81 years ago.
After qualifying as a radiographer the young Ishbel, of Scottish and English stock, came to “the old country” with a friend, bought a bicycle, and cycled around Britain, Holland and France. She’d been told never to drink the water in France so she took the advice to heart and quenched her thirst with wine.
She said she’d “found God walking in the beautiful Welsh hills” and became a Roman Catholic. She returned to New Zealand – in the days when the journey took more than five weeks by boat – via the picturesque Panama Canal.
But she was soon back in the UK where at Godalming she joined the Franciscan Missionary of the Divine Motherhood, an organisation with communities around the world. Deemed to be good at machinery, she became a printer where, among other items, she produced cards for a local Soroptimist club. But it was to be 25 years before she became a member herself.
After a spell in Singapore setting up an x-ray department she returned to Birkenhead in the UK and took up printing again.
“I went back to New Zealand via Malaysia after a gap of 42 years but it hadn’t changed a lot,” she said.
From there she went to work at the missionary in Melbourne before jetting off to Los Angeles where her sister lived. They drove across the country – it took eight days – to see her niece in Washington.
Although she had always wanted to visit Africa, she hasn’t made it there – yet.
President Margaret Smith with guest speaker Ishbel Veitch