A pair of former schoolgirls have been reunited at a Hampshire care home three quarters of a century after they last spent meaningful one-to-one time together.
Old friends Grace Gray and Ruth Williams, both 90, had a ‘lovely shock’ when they found they were in next-door bedrooms at Colten Care’s 64-bedroom Winchester home Abbotts Barton.
Ex-pupils of the old Winchester County High School, now Westgate School, they left there in the early 1950s.
Family and working life meant they lost contact over the years apart from fleeting chats at school reunions organised by Grace. They last saw each other in person in a passing moment more than 20 years ago.
While grandmother Ruth, a retired lab technician at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, now lives permanently at Abbotts Barton, specialist basket furniture maker Grace came in for respite care after a recent hip replacement.
Ruth recounted the moment they saw each other again: “There was a quiz at Abbotts Barton, and there was a new lady there who I thought I recognised. I looked and looked and thought ‘Is it her?’. So, I thought I’d just go and ask. I walked up to her said, ‘My name’s Ruth, what’s your name?’. She replied, ‘Grace’. I asked, ‘Not Grace Harfield?’ and she said ‘Yes’. It was an absolute shock to start with, but it was such a lovely shock. I just couldn’t believe it. She said she could recognise me when I smiled.”
Grace, who lives at Headbourne Worthy, said: “Then we discovered that out of 64 rooms, we were next door to each other.”
Grace and Ruth were among the first ‘examination girls’ to take the 11 Plus and attend Winchester County High, a grammar school for girls only.
Since reuniting, they have shared many memories of their school days, recalling it as a ‘happy school and a place of serious learning’.
They have reminisced about the school’s gym, swimming pool, playing fields and choir.
In an interview with Winchester Radio, Grace recalled: “In the fourth year, everyone had to be in the choir and there used to be a music festival for schools. The girl next to me, who was a good singer, said to me, ‘Do you mind not singing, just mime it all because you put me out of tune’. We won the contest by me not singing a note!”
Another moment was passing an algebra test, which Ruth described as her best memory from school. “They were happy days,” she added.
Grace lived in Cheriton when she first attended the school and caught the bus into Winchester.
Later, she moved to Alresford, where Ruth lived, so the pair travelled in together on the Watercress Line.
Grace said: “They used to send the watercress in wooden crates and baskets up to Covent Garden every day. It was brought into Winchester and then sent up on the main line. It was quite quaint. There were just individual carriages on the train and no corridors.”
Ruth said: “It would be considered dangerous nowadays, just to have single carriages, but it was a great train and it puffed along.”
Ruth and Grace grew up during a time of rationing, facing the challenges of life without modern conveniences such as electric irons and fridges. They remember their mothers “worked tirelessly from dawn till dusk” to provide for their families.
Grace, a member of The Worshipful Company of Basket Makers who still teaches classes in chair seating, described the reunion as “absolutely wonderful” and added: “I didn’t know what had happened to Ruth. It’s been just lovely and I’m going to come and visit her when I go home because I’m not very far away. I was completely shocked to hear someone use my maiden name, which no one around here knows really. It was a real shock and then a complete pleasure. I think all this reminiscing has brightened up Ruth’s life a bit, and it has brightened mine too.”
Abbotts Barton Home Manager Dee Lovewell said: “It was beautiful to see. It’s such a lovely surprise to find somebody from your past, someone who meant a lot to you in your youth, and then suddenly there they are. It has definitely given Ruth a lift. Having her friend nearby has helped her to embrace life again. It’s beautiful to see her blossom and smile and be so animated.”
