Even the sun came 
to Nan’s tea party       

By Kirsten Gray SIXTEEN YEARS ago, when Nan Hendrie moved into her home in Armadale, West Lothian, she was dismayed by the state of the garden. Determined to make it more appealing, she set about laying lawns and digging flowerbeds. Over the years she’s ploughed every spare penny and every spare minute into making it perfect, even adding a wonderful summerhouse to enjoy it from.

Nan gets busy with the teapot.

And her hard work has been rewarded with numerous prizes in local gardening competitions. Retirement After her retirement four years ago, Nan struck upon the idea to raise funds for her local church. Friends, neighbours and members of her congregation were invited to come along to an “open day” and relax in her garden. With sales of tea, coffee, home-bakes and raffle tickets, a fantastic £870 was collected. So Nan decided to do the same thing again, this time for our CHAS appeal.  She also put a notice in her local paper advertising the event to members of the public. For two weeks she was running around organising the event, with her church lending tea urns, tables and chairs and a local garden centre donating plants to sell.  A fellow church member donated a beautiful patchwork quilt to be raffled and other friends provided jam, tablet and yummy home-baking. The weather was dreadful in the week running up to the event and Nan was convinced nobody would turn up. Skies cleared But, by a stroke of luck, on the Friday evening the skies cleared and the sun came out. Over the Saturday and Sunday, visitors flooded into the garden, paying £2.50 for the privilege. Nan and her friends were rushed off their feet but made sure a wonderful time was had by all. And when they tallied up at the end of the two days they were delighted to find they’d raised a whopping £1300. “I have a lot of friends and they helped me tremendously,” says Nan. “But something that really choked me was the kindness of two wee boys who turned up at 5.30 pm on the Saturday. “They asked if it was too late to come in and look about and if they’d have to pay, but as it was so late I said they could come in for free. The following day they came back and, knowing it was for CHAS, gave me £1.50 of their pocket money. “Everybody wants to help with the CHAS appeal. The staff at Rachel House do such a wonderful job looking after the children and I’m sure with a second hospice their good work will be even better.” So while Nan’s garden open day was blooming hard work, she’s delighted CHAS will be able to reap the benefits.

You can e-mail us at: hospice@sundaypost.com