THE speaker at the October meeting was Margaret Clephan, whose talk was entitled Staying Young While Growing Old - not as you might imagine something to do with beauty treatments or plastic surgery, but just keeping young at heart.

Margaret based her talk on her own grandmother who had lived to be 96. Born in 1884 she did not have an easy life.

She had 13 children, Margaret's mother being one of them. At the age of 28, Margaret's mother died leaving two small children and grandma took on the role of looking after them. Within six weeks, grandpa died, as did one of their sons of tuberculosis.

Her comfort in all of this sadness was a packet of Woodbines and a bottle of brandy.

This was her recipe for all ills. Eventually Margaret's father remarried and his new wife proved to be a most wonderful stepmother, accepted and much loved by grandma.

Grandma coped with all these changes in her life and also the changes of the 20th century, and when she died in 1980, Margaret's own son wondered how they would live without her. She had been a great influence on three generations and kept young while growing old.

The president then announced that Margaret and one of the members had each received a certificate from the Forum of Women of Romania, as a thank you for 10 years of help by a group of WI ladies who had gone there on an annual basis, taking equipment and books, and teaching them useful home crafts.