 |
|
I |
|
Parish of the Holy
Family
|
|
|
| 226, Trelawney Avenue,
Langley, Slough, Berkshire. SL3
7UD
Telephone: 01753 543770 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
“We got such a surprise
when the postman knocked,” says an excited Margaret. “We
couldn’t think what it might be. Imagine how we felt when we
discovered it was an anniversary card direct from Her
Majesty.” John was equally stunned. “It was a special
delivery and I had to sign for it,” he says. “We wondered
how she knew where we lived!” |
The front of the card is filled with a colour picture
of the Queen. Inside, beneath the royal crest,
is this personal tribute to John and Margaret:
→
|
 |
Philip and I are delighted to
know that you are celebrating your Diamond
Wedding anniversary on
26th July 2007. |
|
|
We send our congratulations and best wishes to
you on such a wonderful occasion and are pleased
that you share this special year with us.
Elizabeth R.
|
|
|
| The card will be framed and given pride of place in the Galvins’
immaculate front room in Churchill Road. |
 |
 |
|
A room jam-packed
with cards from all their friends –
and spilling over into the kitchen!! |
|
|
|
The royal greeting kicked off a whirlwind
few days for Margaret, 83, and devoted husband John,
who had celebrated his 90th birthday just eleven
days earlier. |
|
The following day came a Mass
of Thanksgiving in their honour at the Holy Family Church.
“Fr
Kevin put on such a beautiful service.” says Margaret. “It was something we’ll
never forget.” |
 |
Father Kevin was so taken by events that he commented the following Sunday
on how
privileged he had felt at being part of John and Margaret’s celebrations,
saying:
“ ..... on Friday I officiated at John and Margaret
Galvin’s anniversary Mass. It was a joy to see this devoted couple celebrating
60 years of marriage.” |
 |
After
the Mass
it was across to St Anne’s Hall adjacent to the Church
for an evening of feasting, dancing and merry-making.
|
 |
|
Parish club chairman
Sean Hayes gave ‘a lovely speech’ and the hundred or so guests
applauded rapturously
as John and Margaret cut the cake. |
 |
|
Music was provided by The Westsiders |
|
 |
As if there
had not been celebration enough to provide a storehouse of memories,
there was another surprise for the immensely popular couple
when they were whisked to Ireland by daughters Maureen and Julia,
first to Margaret’s native Ballinamore in Co Leitrim and then for a
week’s stay in John’s home town of Kenmare,
Co Kerry.
|
| “It was all so hectic – we were in such a whirl that our feet hardly touched the
ground,” adds Margaret. |
 |
The festivities finally at an end, she and
John are able now in quiet contemplation to cast their minds back to
when they met and married in Maidstone, Kent, in 1947.
Margaret had come to England five years earlier, mid-World War II,
to do nursing. John arrived two years later after responding to a
war-time Ministry of Labour recruitment drive appealing for Irishmen
to work in the UK. He was employed in a factory in Ashford, Kent,
making wheels for train wagons. “My wage was four pounds a week and
my lodgings cost ten bob,” recalls John. “I had to report once a
month to the police: they thought we were all members of the IRA. |
|
John and Margaret arrived in
Langley in 1955. “There were only about a hundred Catholics in the
area but gradually more came down from London,” remembers Margaret.
“There was only one bus into Slough, the 81, and you’d catch that
for St Ethelbert’s. The fare was threepence or fourpence but we had
bicycles, so we were okay.” John was one of McAlpine’s Fusiliers,
wielding pick and shovel on building sites all over London.
Margaret worked at the London Drapery store in Slough and soon
involved herself in fund-raising for the erection of the Holy Family
Church. |
 |
| “The
neighbours used to say, ‘Margaret must be
hard up; she’s always out collecting money.’
Every Friday I’d put away the rent money,
the gas money and the 2s/6d church money. It
was a good bit to have to find each week, I
can tell you.” Finally the £20,000 was
raised and, in February 1957, the Church
opened its doors to the growing number of
Catholics moving into the area. Parish
priest Fr Geoffrey Crawfurd was delighted
and so were the Galvins: it took them just a
couple of minutes to walk to Mass when
previously they had attended a variety of
venues – the National Service Hostel in
Colnbrook, the Marish School off Swabey Road
and St Ethelbert’s in Slough. |
 |
|
. “At the opening ceremony there
were no seats as such, just a few chairs.
We didn’t mind – we were young,” says Margaret. “There
was no lighting apart from candles; and of course it was
a Latin Mass. |
|
|
"In those days the priest had
his back to you most of the time, so we didn’t see much of Fr
Crawfurd’s face. But we were pleased just to have new a church on our
doorstep.” |
Daughters Julia and Maureen attended St Ethelbert’s School before passing their
11-plus exams for entry to St Bernard’s Convent.
Julia is a lecturer at Richmond
College and Maureen an administrator at Heathrow Airport.
For the last 22 years of his working life, John was an inspector for Ford’s in
Sutton Lane.
Now he and Margaret take life easy and enjoy nothing more than the
Sunday night dance with their numerous friends at the Holy Family Parish Club, whose
chairman, Sean Hayes, worked with John at Ford’s. |
 |
|
Margaret and
John photographed with Bishop Peter and some
friends at the re-opening of Holy Family
Church. |
|
|
|
Margaret’s verdict on the way the Church has changed over the years?
“There’s no
fasting now before Holy Communion and no compulsory confession either. It’s just
as well because no one would come,” she laughs. |
 |
|
In a world in
which values once held dear are rapidly being swept
away, and with all the attendant consequences that
ensue, John and Margaret’s 60-year partnership provides
the best possible endorsement for the bonding together
of love and commitment in the sacrament of marriage. |
|
|
IRISH
WEDDING BLESSING
May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always on your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
May the light of
friendship guide your paths together,
May the laughter of children grace the halls of your
home.
May the joy of living for one another
Trip a smile from your lips,
A twinkle from your eye.
And when eternity
beckons,
At the end of a life heaped high with love,
May the good Lord
embrace you with arms
That have supported you
The whole length of your joy-filled days.
May the gracious God hold you both in the palm of His
hands.
And today may the
Spirit of Love
Find a dwelling place in your hearts.
Amen |
|
| Many thanks to Michael Taub for
his research and words |
|
| Many thanks to Olive
Green for the party photos |
....................... |
© copyright Holy
Family Parish, Langley : 2007 |
|
