Catherine Curry, Joan Wallace, Rita Cowap, Liz Russell, Phyllis Boyd, and Winnie Manzor started having tea together in their gardens during Covid, and after many chats and laughs, they decided that they’d raise money for Our Lady’s Hospice with a coffee morning so other people could join in on the fun.
The six friends, four are whom are widowed, are from Alderwood in Springfield. Ms Curry believes that their friendship is a “godsend.”
“A lot of us live on our own as well. It started during Covid, on the avenue where we live, there’s quite a few of us who are widowed and we all moved in as newlyweds and had the babies, the usual. But as the years went on, things changed,” she told the Irish Independent.
“In the middle of Covid and one of my neighbours said to me, ‘do you fancy if we if we sat out a few will sat out in the garden, had bring our own cups of tea and have a natter?’ and one thing led to another and it grew from there.
“My husband died over 11 years ago with cancer. Instead of floral tributes, we asked for donations for Our Lady’s Hospice, then we heard the coffee morning is coming up, so we decided we’d do the coffee morning for the hospice.
“But my garden is only small, so we used my neighbour’s three houses down, it’s much bigger. So we held it there three years ago and we were absolutely delighted that we made €2,000.
“We thoroughly enjoyed it. So we said we’d do it next year and we got over €3,000. We did it again last weekend and got €3,500.
“Most of us are in our 52 years living here, we’re an old community. The younger people that have come in, they seem to enjoy it as well. They get a great laugh out of it, it’s great fun.
The Tea Party Girls’ fundraiser for Our Lady’s Hospice raised over €3,500 in 2024.
“My husband died and then a couple of the other ladies, their husbands died of the same thing. I have sisters-in-law who died in it [the hospice] and my son is fighting cancer at the moment there as well.
“I had support of the night nurse from the hospice for my husband, but everybody who’s had any dealings with them knows how brilliant they are. I received counselling from the hospice. I have the height of praise and admiration for them all.”
The fundraiser coffee morning is an annual event for the group of ladies, but they do it as often as they can themselves.
“Weather permitting, we’ll still sit out two or three times a week, just six of us, and we’ll just have a good old natter, speak about the silly things, it cheers us all up. It’s proved a godsend, it really has,” Ms Curry added.
“We all look out for each other. If somebody says, oh, I haven’t seen such and such for a couple of days, I wonder if they’re okay. A lot of us live on our own as well. It’s proved a godsend, it really has.”
