Hello Ladies!
* It’s not really fall yet but you could have fooled me! I think it’s time to put this summer behind us and look forward to the next one.
* This is a month of great celebration as Awesome Audrey and her husband Bob Wyber celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary yesterday (Sept. 6). I hope lots of you will plan to attend the tea in their honour on Sat., Sept. 13 from 2 to 4 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church. Since our Affairre! Is scheduled for 12 noon, there should be lots of time to take in both.
* On a more sombre note, we were all saddened to hear of the death of our Belle Lake Lady, Claudette Schroeder. Her funeral mass was a true celebration of her life. It was really touching to see one of her granddaughters wearing her red hat.
Also, my brother, Stan Cormack (59) died in Calgary in August following a long illness. Peachie and I truly appreciate the prayers, emails, cards, and other expressions of sympathy from those who knew about this. The staff at Pinecrest really helped Mom get through this difficult time.
* Many thanks to The Red Maple (Sophie Neil) and Red Hats’ Aud Maude (Roberta Wonacott) for hosting our August Affairre! Jovial June (Nolan) was one of the hostesses, too, but was unable to attend due to illness. Once again Marie Loewen prepared a superb meal for us. Any hostesses that would like to make use of my front lawn for a picnic are welcome to do so. It was great to have Queen Leslie (Mastalarz, California) join us for the fifth year and Countess Elena (Eleanor Yakel, Chilliwack) was here again, too. Unfortunately I haven’t heard from Lady Laugh a Lot (Darlene Pinkos, Calgary) all summer and assume she and her husband were unable to come to Kenora this year. I hope all is well with her.
* This month our hostesses Amorous Alma (Smith) and Dazzling Donne (Ainsworth {formerly Burelle}) are planning an Affairre! for us at the Kenora Golf and Country Club. Please be sure to bring cash to pay with as Interac and credit cards will not be accepted. Please don’t be concerned that our hostesses have chosen a venue that is not wheelchair accessible. They knew ahead of time that neither of our members who use wheelchairs will be attending this month. As noted above, there’s also a tea I hope many of you will be able to attend. I’ll be at Thunderfest in Thunder Bay with Betty Boop and Balistic Brenda this weekend and look forward to meeting lots of fun red hatters there.
* This month’s birthday girls are the Cambrian Cutie, Lady Donna of the Court, Betty Boop, Magnificent Marilyn, and Dazzling Donnie. If your birthday is also this month, please let me know so that I can add it to the list for next year. Please note that I will only include your birthday if you wish me to do so. If you’d rather not share this information, that’s OK.
* When she visited us last month, Queen Leslie brought a special treat. She brought two musical Red Hat bears. The prototype of these bears was made by a Red Hatter to help celebrate a special event. It was a big hit and many asked how they could buy one. The result is the beginning of a business. One of the bears was for me and the other for the chapter to raffle off. Tickets are the same price as our 50/50 draw – $.50 each or 5 for $2 – and can be purchased until our December Affairre!, when we will draw the winner. The bear will be on display at each Affairre! between now and then.
* The Princess of Note, Goodnight Irene, and I will be getting together tomorrow morning, Sept. 8, to begin planning our bus trip in November. We’ve had very little input of ideas so it looks like we pretty much have carte blanche. Whatever we do, it will, I’m sure be lots of fun. Hopefully you’ll get an update about this on Saturday. A chapter called The Ageless Amethysts has asked us to let them know where we’ll be having lunch that day so that some of them can join us.
* As I mentioned a couple of months ago, I am planning a Royal Affairre! like the one three years ago for Queen mothers and Vice Queens. It will be an opportunity to find out about other chapters and perhaps to plan some informal ways to get together with other Red Hatters in the future. The last time I did this several members of our chapter helped out (decorating, greeting, doing dishes, etc.) and I know they enjoyed it, too. I’d really appreciate some help again this time. Please let me know if you can do this.
* That’s about it for now ladies. See you next month!
