by Betty Reutens and Angela Ong at the request of Mrs. Joyce Peter, President of the Cathedral Women’s Fellowship, about our Charity Corner before its retirement.
After almost 80 years of existence our Charity Corner (CC) had its final sale in November 2019. It started off as a Thrift Shop, before being known as Charity Shop, and recently, Charity Corner. It has a long history that’s for sure!
Betty Reutens recalls, “Monday is for sorting and Tuesday for sales” from way back in the 1970s and we are still proudly carrying on that tradition. It is just so amazing that we always have bags and bags of clothes on our sorting day. Some are very well worn, some new, and some still in their original packaging! We are so thankful to all of our very generous regular donors for the endless supply of goods for our Tuesday sale.
Monday’s sorting, to me, is always very exciting as we never know what treasures will be coming out of all those mysterious suitcases and boxes! I once even found a beautiful box of mooncakes that was obviously meant for someone else! However, since no one came forward to claim it we, being frugal volunteers, decided not to put it to waste and had a feast during our 10am coffee break.
The expertise at the clothing assembly line are the usual Jasmine Khoo, Yew Meei Meei, Elizabeth Das Gupta, Patricia George, Glory Robert, Ruby Robert, and Bina Sakrani. While we are busy sorting at the Multi-Purpose Hall, Joyce Peter would be clearing and cleaning the CC room which can be very untidy and dusty. We are going to miss her calling out to her flock for her wonderful pot of tea at our Monday 10am coffee break!
On Tuesday, the doors open for sale at 8.30am sharp! We can always recognise the happy faces waiting anxiously for the door to be opened. Opening that door is not for the faint-hearted! She must know how to unlock and, like lightning, move out of sight fast otherwise she would be bulldozed flat like a pancake as they charge into the Multi-Purpose Hall!
I have so many wonderful memories of our CC visitors. One of them was a tall gentleman with an old umbrella under one arm and a well-seasoned sling bag on the other shoulder. He walked all the way from Sentul Market just to buy a shirt! He would come up to me after slipping the shirt into his bag and never failed to bring out his 4”X6” colour photos to tell me his life stories.
There was also this lady who never failed to come up to me and bargain for her goods even those that were RM0.50! I think even if Kathleen Kong, Chan Cheng Huah or Jasmine Nair were to price two pieces for RM0.50 she still would say, “Boleh kurang ka? (Can this be cheaper?)”
We will miss Juliana Chin as we watched those going to her drapery department and Olga Tallala for her singing while sitting beside me sticking on the price tags.
As we sing Auld Lang Syne to our Charity Corner, we are also proud to say that we too have been recycling to green the Earth for our future generations!
Lastly, we thank God that, through this ministry, we can contribute annually towards the Cathedral budget, support Cathedral activities and pipe organ repairs, and give financial assistance towards the needy.