The Wives - Wherever You Are - The Military Wives - Our true stories of heartbreak, hope and love

Contents

Cover

Title Page

About the Military Wives Choirs Foundation About the Military Wives Choirs Foundation Supporting the women who support our troops The Military Wives Choirs Foundation is a network of choirs that reaches across the whole military community. It has been established to provide support, guidance and funding for individual choirs, but first and foremost to bring women closer together through singing. Following the phenomenal success of ‘Wherever You Are’, which raised more than half a million pounds for military charities, those involved set out to create a wider network that could support wives, partners and women serving in the forces, and would leave a lasting legacy. In particular, the women from the first choirs wanted to share the enjoyment and pride that they had already experienced through their own choirs. The Military Wives Choirs Foundation has enabled them to do just this. Through its growing network, the Foundation is building something that brightens lives, strengthens military communities and enables hundreds of women to experience the enjoyment and friendship that comes from being part of a Military Wives Choir. The Foundation is now a registered subsidiary of SSAFA Forces Help. Registered Charity Number 1148302. Established 2012.

Introduction

OUR LIVES

Katherine Catchpole

Sarah Hendry

Mechelle Cooney

Nicky Scott

Emma Hanlon-Penny

Louise Baines

Nicky Clarke

Lauren Bolger

Claire Balneaves

Kelly Leonard

Rachael Woosey

Alison Burston

Carol Musgrove

Paula Mundy

Jacqueline Beardsley

Larraine Smith

Kristen Gilbert

Sharon Bristow

Kerry Tingey

Sally Wilkinson

Caroline Jopp

Rachel Newey

Sharon Farrell

Stacey Hardwell

Julie Sanderson

FINDING OUR VOICE

Nicky Clarke

Sharon Farrell

Caroline Jopp

Alison Burston

Kerry Tingey

Sarah Hendry

Katherine Catchpole

Nicky Scott

Rachel Newey

Emma Hanlon-Penny

Rachael Woosey

Kelly Leonard

Kristen Gilbert

Sharon Bristow

Claire Balneaves

Louise Baines

Mechelle Cooney

Larraine Smith

Jacqueline Beardsley

Julie Sanderson

Stacey Hardwell

WHEREVER YOU ARE

Nicky Scott

Katherine Catchpole

Louise Baines

Kelly Leonard

Larraine Smith

Sarah Hendry

Rachael Woosey

Mechelle Cooney

Rachel Newey

Lauren Bolger

STRONGER TOGETHER

Paula Mundy

Nicky Clarke

Caroline Jopp

Carol Musgrove

Sally Wilkinson

Picture Section

Acknowledgements

Copyright

About the Publisher

About the Military Wives Choirs Foundation

Supporting the women who support our troops

The Military Wives Choirs Foundation is a network of choirs that reaches across the whole military community. It has been established to provide support, guidance and funding for individual choirs, but first and foremost to bring women closer together through singing.

Following the phenomenal success of ‘Wherever You Are’, which raised more than half a million pounds for military charities, those involved set out to create a wider network that could support wives, partners and women serving in the forces, and would leave a lasting legacy. In particular, the women from the first choirs wanted to share the enjoyment and pride that they had already experienced through their own choirs. The Military Wives Choirs Foundation has enabled them to do just this.

Through its growing network, the Foundation is building something that brightens lives, strengthens military communities and enables hundreds of women to experience the enjoyment and friendship that comes from being part of a Military Wives Choir. The Foundation is now a registered subsidiary of SSAFA Forces Help.

Registered Charity Number 1148302. Established 2012.

Introduction

We felt the poppy petals settling on our hair, our faces, our new black dresses. A large screen showed a roll call of men lost in war during the past 12 months, some of them men we knew as friends of our husbands, men who never made it to the homecoming, men who would never see their children grow up.

Ahead of us, and right in our eyeline, stood the war widows, the brave contingent of women who had taken part in the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate the lives of their lost husbands. These women were living our worst nightmare; they had heard the knock on the door that we all dread. If they could keep strong, so could we; if they didn’t break down, neither would we. We battled to hold our tears back.

But it was a very long two minutes.

This, we thought, was what it was all about. Our choir, the Military Wives Choir, had borne us up and carried us through the long, gruelling seven-month tour our men had just completed in Afghanistan. It had given us a focus, it had broken down barriers, it had formed us into a tight and supportive community.

And now we had made the world know of our existence. Earlier in the evening we had sung our beautiful song, written especially for us from the words of the letters and messages we share with our men when their lives are in danger. And as we poured out the song, we told everyone that there is another branch of the armed forces: the military wives who stay behind, adding our quiet strength to our men’s courage.

‘Wherever you are, my love will keep you safe,’ we sang, and every one of us thought of the man in our life, and our gratitude that once again a tour was over, and he was back. We knew, from the reception there at the Royal Albert Hall, that our song touched the hearts of others, reaching out beyond our own private relief and pride.

What we did not know, at that moment, was how it would also touch the hearts of an entire nation, and how our lives would be transformed by the whirlwind of fame that was to come.

But we did know that music and singing are such powerful drugs that our choir would live on, even after the television cameras were gone and after Gareth Malone, our inspirational choirmaster, had kissed us all goodbye. And, perhaps, today, despite everything else that has happened, our greatest achievement is that we have helped spread the healing, bonding and uplifting spirit of the choir to military bases all across the land, and in Germany and Cyprus.

From now on, military wives everywhere will find each other in choirs, and will form there the sort of friendships that will last a lifetime, and carry them through the anxiety and fear we all share when our men are away from home.

We are proud of so many of the things we have done, but this ranks at the top – above the number one single, the hit album, the trip to Downing Street and singing at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert, as well as all the other celebrity moments.

We are thrilled and delighted, too, that the public have taken us to their hearts: we have never asked for sympathy, just support in our lives which are dedicated, in turn, to supporting the men who keep Britain safe.

WORDS WE USE

We use words and phrases that we pick up from our men – military terms and slang that you may not understand. Here’s an explanation of the ones in this book:

AfghanA shortened version of Afghanistan

BFBSBritish Forces Broadcasting Service

BlueysLetters on special thin airmail blue paper

COCommanding Officer