Sheila Maxey clears out and finds lost treasures

Last Saturday I went into Brentwood United Reformed Church for the last time. Men from the two other churches in the pastorate were loading things into a hired white van – the photocopier, the microwave, the two large screens with associated electronics, a large, beautiful hanging created by the quilting group. I collected a couple of small mementos for a housebound member, handed in my keys and walked home with tears streaming down my face.

I have been clearing out my late husband Kees’s study. For the last 60 years or so he kept all the papers and publications from all the organisations in which he was actively involved. So, with family help, I have made many trips to the recycling centre. His study was the power house of his campaigning, fundraising, researching, and on his beloved computer he produced posters for the church and the Labour Party and created family photo books. Now his study stands clean (as never before) and largely empty: just two of his vibrant photos on the wall of Zimbabwe people dancing with joy at the independence elections of 1980…

Sheila Maxey was a member of Brentwood United Reformed Church, Essex

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This is an extract from an article published in the September 2023 edition of Reform

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