Now Vera’s mission is to help others
By Margaret Clayton
 BBC Scotland will record the performance and screen a one-hour special on Hogmanay. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus, the Dance School of Scotland and the West Lothian Schools Brass Band are just three of the acts taking part.
Vera said, “It’ll be a night to remember. It’s wonderful that youngsters are making this effort
to help raise funds for ill children.
A real effort
“Through the Weisfeld Foundation, we try to back people who are making a real effort to improve life for others. I’m taking my grandchildren along and we’ll have a brilliant time.”
That enthusiasm sums up Vera Weisfeld, a woman whose rags-to-riches story is the stuff of fairytales. With her London-born husband Gerald, she built up the hugely successful chain of What Every Woman Wants shops.
Last week, at her luxury home in Bothwell, she talked about her roller-coaster ride to fame and fortune, and why she just loves giving money away.
Vera Carlin was born in a tenement in Coatbridge. With two sisters and a brother, money was short. But her mum kept their home spotlessly clean and, even today, although Vera has a housekeeper, she can’t resist dusting the window ledges or scrubbing down the tiles in the shower.
“The family laughs at me,” she admits. “Nobody can polish the oven like I can. It was all my mother’s training.”
When she left school, Vera got a job as a junior assistant in C&A. In 1959 she married and had two sons — John, now 40, and Michael (37).
But, before long, she realised she’d married a compulsive gambler. “I believed marriage was for life, but no matter how hard I tried — paying my husband’s gambling debts, going with him to Gamblers Anonymous — I knew after 10 years it was time to leave. He was hopelessly addicted.”
As a single mum, Vera answered an ad for a job at What Every Woman Wants in Glasgow. Gerald Weisfeld interviewed her.
“He couldn’t offer me the money I needed, so I said, ‘No thanks’, and went to walk out the door. As I touched the handle, he said, ‘Don’t go’. And I became manageress of his shop in Argyle Street.”
It was the start of a winning formula. Together, through the ’80s, they built up the business, selling fashionable clothes at bargain prices.
In 1983, Vera and Gerald married in a glittering ceremony at Gleneagles Hotel and all the staff were invited.
Vera had a rapport with her staff and before every new shop opened they sang and danced around inside, while the crowds gathered outside. At Christmas, the Weisfelds held a party for all their employees and offered big raffle prizes.
Vera said, “One young mum bringing up her baby on her own won £1000 one Christmas, and she told me with tears in her eyes, ‘This has changed my life. It’s as important to me as all your millions are to you.’ I’ve never forgotten that.”
The couple built up their empire until they owned more than 40 shops throughout Britain.
“My motto was, ‘If you don’t enjoy your work, you shouldn’t be there’,” said Vera. “We worked long hours and gave the business 100 per cent because we loved what we were doing.
Working class
“We ate, breathed and slept the shops. We brought fashion to the working class people of Scotland and, for the first time, women could buy clothes at a third of the price they were in fashion boutiques.”
Their empire had a turnover of £100 million in the ’80s. Every two years, they doubled their profits and survived three recessions.
Then, in 1990, something happened that changed their lives. Gerald and Vera were on a holiday in Rio de Janeiro when the engine of their plane caught fire.
“We thought we might die, and we turned to each other and said — what’s all this for? We have enough money. It’s time to do other things. Life isn’t forever.”
They sold the business for £50 million and their children became instant millionaires. But the Weisfelds wanted to do more than sit back and enjoy a pampered life.
“We had the glitzy glamorous lifestyle, all the big toys, but in the end that isn’t enough. So we set up the Weisfeld Foundation in 1990 and invested millions in it. Gerald and I get tremendous satisfaction from being involved in worthwhile projects.”
These have included providing an orphanage in Romania for HIV-positive children and taking lorry-loads of aid to Bosnia.
Vera is a hands-on charity worker. “Writing cheques isn’t enough for me,” she said, “I like to get my sleeves rolled up.”
Last week, she opened a state- of-the-art refuge for battered wives in Coatbridge, financed by the Foundation.
You get far more
She said, “The look on a woman’s face when she realises she has somewhere clean, modern and safe to live with her children means as much to me as business success. You get far more back than you give.”
Three years ago, Vera developed colon cancer. Both her parents, Sadie and Teddy, had died of the disease. She had an operation and fought back to health. She also has rheumatoid arthritis, but lives every day to the full, supervising her Foundation projects.
“I don’t take anything for granted,” she said. “Every moment matters. I’ve had some fabulous experiences. I love wearing Christian Dior clothes and staying in exclusive hotels. But I also enjoy having the family round and cooking Sunday dinner or getting together with the girls from Coatbridge for a drink and a laugh.
“Mum used to say, ‘Vera, never forget the bowl you were baked in’, and that’s helped keep my feet on the ground.”
 Spirit of Youth is virtually sold out — only a handful of tickets remain from the Royal Concert Hall (0141 353 8000). |
You can e-mail us at:
hospice@sundaypost.com
|
