We are delighted to announce that Elizabeth Owen, who has been a friend to the Association for so many years, has agreed to become our President.
TO YOU ALL
Where can I start? Whatever I say will never be sufficient. I cannot thank you all enough for all the messages and thoughts and flowers you sent to me when Peter died. You will never know how much it meant and helped to keep me and our two sons and their families strong.
It must be over twenty-five years, half our married life, that to Peter and me the Wilfred Owen Association became almost an extended family. The fun we had, the amazing people we met and the occasions all over the country which threw up so much interest and information and discoveries, but more importantly, the friends we have made. Wilfred seems to have been everywhere: Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Birkenhead, Edinburgh, Devon, Ripon, Scarborough, Folkestone, and obviously France - to name some of them.
This year Peter knew was going to be special and I know he is just so sad - and I dare say mad - that he did not make it. Everything the committee and beyond had organised - the Bugle's outings, Jacky Duminy's experience at Ors - far exceeded anything one could possibly have imagined. The sight of Wilfred in the sand at Folkestone being slowly washed away by the tide - an emotional and stunning scene. Danny Boyle, how on earth or sand did you do that? The Sambre-Oise Canal before dawn in the mist: grass glistening white with frost, water like a mirror with the moon and autumn trees reflected in the water: so many, many things to 'never forget'. I feel in a way, that for me at least, it was all a memorial, not just for Wilfred but for Peter too.
It has been an emotional roller-coaster: a time I am finding quite difficult, but to you all, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for all your friendship and care which has helped more than you will ever know.
With love,
Elizabeth
