A few months ago, I was e-mailed through the web-site by a lady named Judith Le Maire from Germany who asked for a copy of ‘Voices of Severnside’ recorded in 1978. During the choirs’ tour to Waghausel, she was given the LP by Owen and Bernice Howells with whom she stayed in 1979 on school visit to Caldicot. I was happy to provide a full CD from a digitalised version produced by John Nicholson.
The memories of our choir, the hospitality Judith received and the welcome all her school friends got from Caldicot have never left her and she recently sent me an e-mail wishing you all a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year. She also expressed her sadness on hearing of the passing away of Owen and Bernice Howells and a condolence card has been passed to Anthony. Included are three photos she managed to find of her visit and an extract from the e-mail she sent to me. Judith’s maiden name was Brecht at the time of her visit.
“We had been travelling by bus to the United Kingdom in March 1979 with our teachers from our school “Realschule in Waghäusel”.
For a couple of days we had been staying in London to see lots of the tourist attractions, like “Houses of Parliament” , “Buckingham Palace”, “St. Paul`s Cathedral” and other places.
Then our travel route led us to the township of Waghäusel.
In Caldicot, we were made to feel at home from our guest families. So I did have a very warm welcome at the family of Helen Howells.
We had different activities, like the visit in school, a trip to Bath, a trip to the seaside and on our last evening the disco in the Caldicot Leisure Centre.
All in all it had been a very exciting and impressing time for all of us.
Actually I did come back to Caldicot in the same year, after I had finished school. I used to live in different places and I did work at the “Wentwood Inn”, Caerwent as a waitress for half a year until I went back to Germany again.
At that time I did stay in Caldicot. Mr. & Mrs. Howells came over to Waghäusel with the Caldicot Male Voice Choir. They took the chance to get known to my parents and they passed them over the LP “Voices of Severnside”.
As the years went by, the LP got broke or left, but I still remembered it, especially the song “The joy of the hunter”.
So guess my happiness, when I had contacting you successfully and you sent the CD to me. Thank you very much.”
I’ve written this to show that our choir reaches out to, and is remembered by, many across the world. This is one of the joys of being in our choir and should always be considered when we are in a concert, on a social occasion or just by talking about our choir to others. If anyone can remember Judith or has memories of the school visit in 1979, please let me know.
Lyn