The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Did you start Spalding Gleed Girls School in the early 1970s? If so Carol Smylie is looking for you.
Carol (was Gray) has made it her mission for 2018 to find her old school friends and organise a reunion.
She is appealing for anyone who started the school in September 1970, 1971 or 1972 to get in touch.
She said: “It all started when my sister Glenis saw a picture on Facebook with the caption “can you name any of these girls?”
“I remembered all 23 of them as I had regularly played the class seating arrangement through in my head. A couple of girls, Julie Buckley and Anne Gilbert (now Willson), commented and I thought before it’s too late let’s get together and have a catch up.
“So I set about finding the girls who were with me in Class 4C and 5C who were on the photograph – this has not been an easy task as the majority of us have changed our names at least once in the past 30-40 years!”
“I started on Facebook with girls whose married names I knew – some I found, some I didn’t, in turn some of these had kept in touch with others from our year.
“Then I met up with Julie and Anne and they brought along Sue Brown and she brought Elaine Higgins.
“I was a bit concerned in case we had nothing in common but we were together for about two hours and the conversation just flowed with stories of school and about our family life – we were like a bunch of school girls again!”
Since then, Carol has managed to track down 17 of the 23 girls from her class – she is struggling to contact Sue Bettinson, Suzanne Dickinson, Stephanie Hawker, Sharon Roberts and Abigal Walker. She added: “Anyone who knows these girls, can you ask them to look me up on Facebook, email or text me please.”
Carol has now started with the girls she knew had brothers and sisters and this has proved fruitful resulting in her finding another 20 from her year – some are now living abroad and are going to try to get over for the reunion.
Carol said: “Several girls have asked about my sister who was in the year above us – she has kept in touch with several from her year – and I have managed to find several from the year below us who have asked if they could attend.
“So if any of you are the girls I am looking for or you know of anyone that started at the Gleed Girls School in September 1970, 1971 or 1972 I would be really pleased to hear from you.
“I am not sure when and where we are going to meet yet but I think it will be mid to late August and I will keep people informed once I have some indication as to how many can attend.
“If you would like to get in touch, I am on Facebook, my mobile number is 07984 994512 and my email address is carol.smylie@turners-distribution.com (work)
“Fingers crossed, hope some of you see this and contact me.”
