People are quick to judge the WI as fuddy-duddy but, as women, we need female support networks – and I certainly needed my village.
After a decade in Dubai and then back home in Surrey in 2015, one of the things I had droned on about to expat friends was wanting to find community again – something there is a dearth of in the desert.
As a ‘repat’ (or returning expat), I was shocked to find that coming home didn’t really feel like coming home at all. Everything and everyone had moved on, and they weren’t used to including me in their plans. As I was also working from home on my own business, I wasn’t socialising and didn’t feel I really belonged – even though I’d returned to the same house in Staines-upon-Thames.
But a couple of months after landing, I spotted a post on a local group on Facebook. ‘I’m thinking about starting a new evening WI in the area. Is anyone interested?’ The timing was impeccable.
WI by Zoom: A positive effect of pandemic
For two years, until I had my son, I turned up every month, and I also joined the book club. As a solo mother I found it hard to sort out enough babysitting to return to WI, but this summer I signed up again.
Funnily enough, it’s a direct, and positive, effect of the pandemic: with the clubs, talks and quiz nights going online via Zoom, it’s easier for me to attend than in person.
I’ve made friends for life at the WI, of many ages. In this magazine, in 2019, I wrote about how my WI became my ‘village’ when I made the decision to become a solo mother. I developed pre-eclampsia and my son was born 10 weeks early. Being totally involved with Neonatal Intensive Care for weeks, followed by reflux, hospitalisation for bronchiolitis and a hernia operation in my tiny two-pounder’s first four months of life, my WI gang was a godsend, providing meals and babysitting, and even some night shifts.
Food bank talk reduced me to tears
All the world is right here in the WI. I’ve done everything from meeting another Dubai ‘repat’ to making a Christmas wreath, and following in the suffragettes’ footsteps through London. I’ve been to see the beautiful Royal Holloway University choir perform Handel’s Messiah, learnt about how to help our endangered hedgehogs, and the fascinating way that a colony of honey bees works in a hive.
After I’d heard a talk given by the marvellous woman who runs our local food bank (which we support as a WI), I was reduced to tears.
Now, I always make the effort to drop off something – especially with women in mind, such as tampons, or puddings and sweet treats that are less likely to be donated – every time I shop.
I’ve been given courgettes to stu‑ , from a WI friend’s personal summer glut, homemade jam and marmalade, and bags full of scones for the freezer. I’ve had a baking lesson at home with our resident baker Jo, who always makes the effort to bake me something eggless as I’m allergic to egg; I’ve become a WI Climate Ambassador and even had a go at folded book art.
WI clichés not true – I don’t sing Jerusalem
The clichés and stereotypes about the WI are not true. As my son will attest, I can’t darn, stitch, crochet or knit. But I happily take gardening advice from our more green-fingered members and thoroughly enjoyed a seemingly quiet talk on the royal family turning into a heated Brexit debate. We’ve only sung Jerusalem a couple of times and I’ve opted out – and that’s fine too.
During the pandemic, the Nightingirls have sent postcards and delivered potted geraniums to every single member. The committee is carefully assessing whether it is safe to restart some local guided walks, and also taking the time to phone any vulnerable or lonely members to check in with them – this aligns with our important campaigns on mental health and loneliness.
Other than getting involved with climate change and microplastics (plastic soup is a subject I’m passionate about and I’ve invested in a Guppyfriend bag to fi lter microplastics in the washing machine), I’ve never previously delved far into the WI’s history of campaigning.
But reading up while writing this piece, I discovered that the WI campaigned for the rights of single mothers back in the late Sixties, before I was born – and for alternative energy in the Seventies, when I was as young as my son is now. Clearly it’s always been an organisation I was meant to join.
First published in the WI Life magazine in October 2020