Gerry Manolas’ Post

As Chair of the Memorial Association for Free Czechoslovak Veterans I am responsible for organising many events that commemorate our WWII service personnel. Some are small and personal whilst others are very large and require a lot of co-ordination between the various groups that participate. I have always subscribed to my Girl Guide motto of ‘Always be prepared.’ You don’t just have a plan A, there is always a Plan B, C and often a D. And apart from me knowing the plan, it’s so important that all involved understand it too. Making allowances for things getting ‘lost in translation’ is something else I have learned to factor in, working with our colleagues from the Czech and Slovak communities. However, last Sunday morning as I stared out at the howling wind and rain prior to our commemorative event at Brookwood cemetery it seemed to me that not one of my plans was going to deal with the awful weather. As I stood there wracking my brains as to what was the best course of action my husband calmly said, “So what’s your DRP then?”. “DRP?” “Yes, your Disaster Recovery Plan. The thing you plan to do when the worst-case scenario happens”. The nearest thing I had got to that was always a prayer the week before to ask for dry weather. So far in 13 events I hadn’t needed anything more than that. We’d had some close shaves, but never all out rain like Sunday morning. I realised I did not have one, the show had to go on and I had to hope that anyone who was still happy to turn up would have wellies and umbrellas and waterproofs. Feeling despondent that all the hard work I had done to get to this point would be of little use I checked my phone and saw some text messages. Expecting them to be people cancelling I was astounded to see that all said exactly the opposite. They all said they still intended to be there. If our veterans could put up with the wet and flooded conditions of Normandy during WWII, we can cope with an hour or two of rain to remember them! In fact, as it turned out the weather seemed to bring everyone together in a ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ manner. And to top it all not long after I started the event using my planned ‘shortened version’, the skies brightened, and the rain stopped, and the sun started to push through. My prayers seemed to be answered. I noted despite everything we still had similar numbers of attendees to our last event in May, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. However, I have learned a valuable lesson. You can be sure by next May I will have a full DRP in place on top of the usual Plans, A, B, C and D.