When Beryl met Eryl. Our Heswall charity shop volunteer, Beryl, brings us her tale as old as time.

At only 94, Beryl Kenrick (pictured on the very left of the banner above) is a dedicated and cherished member of our Heswall charity shop volunteer team.

For the past ten years she’s been greeting our customers and her fellow volunteers alike, with a huge smile and a warm hello.

Born in 1930 in Birkenhead, Beryl is the eldest of four children, alongside brother, Maurice, and two sisters, Maureen and Irene.

During World War II, Beryl was evacuated to Shropshire for safety where she struck up a friendship with another young girl, June. It was through June that Beryl met the future love of her life, Eryl. She told us the story of, When Beryl met Eryl,

“June, who was already staying on the farm that hosted evacuees, made me feel so welcome and always looked out for me. After the war, we stayed in touch and one summer our holiday week lined up, so June and I booked a break at a farm in lovely Llangollen in North Wales.

We took the train and when we arrived we discovered there was no public transport and it was a couple of miles walk to the farm. Along the way, we must have been looking a bit bedraggled, a man in a tractor pulled up asking where we were going and offered us a lift. We were grateful for the offer and jumped in.

Clothes were rationed back then but my mum had bought me a brand new coat in a beautiful sax-blue colour which I loved. I thought I was the bee’s knees.

So, when I realised I’d picked up an oil stain on it from the tractor, I was devastated!

June had suggested petrol would get the oil stain out and at the farm we were greeted by a handsome young man named Eryl, who offered to help, ‘There’s a five-gallon drum in the back,’ he joked, nodding for me to haul it for myself before he kindly went and fetched it. He put a small amount in a jam-jar for me, and it worked a treat.

At that time there was only one pub, one shop and a small school in the nearest village.

As the week went on, we were asking Eryl to drop us off more and more. We started to grow close. It was a lovely week and when we were leaving, June gave Eryl my phone number.

He’d call me regularly, every Sunday, it wasn’t like nowadays. His mother realised it was getting serious because she wrote me a telegram, ‘What are you doing to my son? He refuses to work on the farm!’ This was because his mum was paying him pocket money still although he was now a grown man.

Eryl then joined the RAF and was stationed in Wrexham for four years where he worked in the recruiting office. During his weekend leave he would stay at my family home, sleeping in my brother, Maurice’s, bedroom.

Our romance continued, and eventually he’d saved up £100 for an engagement ring and he asked me to marry him.

We enjoyed our honeymoon in Scarborough and 9 months and two weeks later our daughter Lorraine, was born. We then had two more children, Roger and Peter.

We had a really lovely life.”

After leaving school at 14, Beryl attended technical college and learnt shorthand and typing, she worked at the RAC and a hospital in Wallasey before becoming a full-time mum.

Sadly, Eryl died with a brain tumour some years ago.

Nowadays she’s a great-grandmother to Lorraine’s grandchildren who are all settled in Somerset. She keeps in touch with treasured photos sent on the mobile phone that her son, Roger, bought her.

Beryl’s hobbies and volunteering at our Heswall charity shop have expanded her friendship group and she tells us it’s what helps to keep her fit and well,

“On Monday’s I go to a class called ‘Create’ for painting and crafting. For Christmas we’ve created a joyous hanging decoration. We glue two CDs together and decorate them with festive stickers. Then, by threading a colourful ribbon through the middle you have a dazzling feature piece. (Here’s one she made earlier on the right).

Crafting keeps me out of mischief. I love making things and, after class, we sometimes go out for a meal to the Harry Beswick pub in Heswall for lunch. It’s a really nice little gang of people.

I love the shop and it means I can meet more people and, of course, knowing we’re helping our wonderful hospice makes it all the more worthwhile. All my volunteer colleagues and Rachel, the shop manager are all so lovely.”

Beryl, you are simply a superstar. Many thanks for all you do for Wirral Hospice St John’s.

  If you’d like to volunteer at the hospice or in your community at one of our charity shops follow the links at www.wirralhospice.org/volunteering or email volunteering@wirralhospice.org or call 0151 334 2778 and ask for volunteer services