A little bit of History.
Yesterday Síle, who was cleaning one of the bedrooms with the windows open, heard some talk outside the door as people talked outside the building. She greeted them out the window and they then told her that one of the ladies had stayed here a long time ago. Of course we asked them in, three elderly people; two ladies and a gentleman.
The story was that in 1954 (that is 59 years ago!) one of the ladies had encephalitis and the treatment at the time was that she had to spend several months in a room with no sound and no light to recover and so, even though she came from Armentiéres, right in the north of the country, the decision was made to send her down to the south to the Dominican sisters who, at that time operated a convalescent home in Le Presbytére.
She did recover and was now making the journey back for the first time – nearly sixty years later- a pilgrimage to the place of her recovery. She said she had wonderful memories of the house and of the sisters who gently nursed her back to health. They were very appreciative of our warm welcome for them and our tour of the house and garden and signed the book with their thanks and address, still in Armentiéres.
We felt privileged to be allowed a little insight into the history of our house.