A Shilling For Your Thoughts
When the Queen Victoria Hospital was demolished Right Foot was outraged. “Now how will they be able to put up a plaque to Mere’s birthplace when she is famous?”
Years later, to our surprise the chance came. As a fundraiser the Queen Vic Women’s Centre resurrected the idea of the Shilling Wall. In 1897 a whole bunch of women gave a shilling each to pay for the construction of the Queen Vic. By paying a bit more than a shilling, we could nominate our own special woman, have her name engraved on the wall and say 25 words or less of nice stuff about her on the website.
So on a rainy day in May 2008, Right Foot, Mads (aged 2) and I were at the open day and unveiling of the first panel of the new Shilling Wall. The panels are modest - no neon lights or gilt lettering on mahogany honour boards here – more a transparent perspexy sort of thing. We'd envisaged something grander but it is a fund-raiser after all. You have to be determined to find the name you’re after. RF and I searched for Mere’s while Mads got stuck into the afternoon tea.
We weren’t sure how Mere would react so said nothing. A year or so went by and we still weren’t sprung. Then they advertised for donors for more panels and we decided to nominate Hil, although she wasn’t born in the Queen Vic. Famous daughters need plaques and does it really matter where?