![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/gosport-fareham-and-district\/files\/2011\/07\/100_1011-300x220.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMEMBERS were taken on a tour of the globe \u2013 two and a half times \u2013 by guest speaker Ishbel Veitch, a Soroptimist with the Guildford club.<\/p>\n
She painted a picture of a fascinating and fun life that had begun in Dunedin, New Zealand, 81 years ago.<\/p>\n
After qualifying as a radiographer the young Ishbel, of Scottish and English stock, came to \u201cthe old country\u201d with a friend, bought a bicycle, and cycled around Britain, Holland and France. She\u2019d been told never to drink the water in France so she took the advice to heart and quenched her thirst with wine.<\/p>\n
She said she\u2019d \u201cfound God walking in the beautiful Welsh hills\u201d and became a Roman Catholic. She returned to New Zealand \u2013 in the days when the journey took more than five weeks by boat \u2013 via the picturesque Panama Canal.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
After a spell in Singapore setting up an x-ray department she returned to Birkenhead in the UK and took up printing again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went back to New Zealand via Malaysia after a gap of 42 years but it hadn\u2019t changed a lot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 it took eight days \u2013 to see her niece in Washington.<\/p>\n
Although she had always wanted to visit Africa, she hasn\u2019t made it there \u2013 yet.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
President Margaret Smith with guest speaker Ishbel Veitch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MEMBERS were taken on a tour of the globe \u2013 two and a half times…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-club-news"],"yoast_head":"\n