Fond memories of Anita at funeral service

ST PETER'S Anglican Church was packed for the funeral service earlier this week of one of Sark's diminishing number of 'characters', Anita Nicolle.

Mrs Nicolle died last week while travelling to Guernsey for what would have been a final session of the chemotherapy treatment she was receiving for cancer.

There were smiles in the church as the minister, the Rev. Gill Nicholls, recounted the recollections of Mrs Nicolle's family – and particularly those relating to her stubbornness and clear-cut views on all manner of things, but which also centred on her being the very best wife and mother anyone could have.

Anita will be best remembered by regular visitors to Sark as the proprietor of the Rendezvous Stores in The Avenue, a shop which featured home-grown and home-baked produce that, as she frequently told customers, would invariably be delivered by her husband Stan.

Even after that closed, to be demolished and replaced with housing units, Anita continued baking until ill-health put a stop to that. She was also one of the very few Sarkees who was fluent in the Sark language.

She was also enormously proud of what her and Stan's three children had achieved. All three are in business in their own right in Sark – Gavin with his farm and oil deliveries, Lorraine as a highly skilled silversmith and potter and Vanessa with her hair styling salon. That pride extended to her two grandchildren: Grace, who is at an eminent school in England, and young Martin, who recently won an Oscar at the Sark School Film Festival.

Anita is a loss to her family and to Sark's wider community and the attendance at her funeral is a testament to the respect and affection Sark residents had for her.

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The annual Sheep Race meeting might well be more than two months away, but Carnival Committee chairman Puffin Taylour told me recently that the boats from Guernsey on that weekend – 20 to 22 July inclusive – are filling up fast, particularly those on the Saturday and Sunday mornings.

As always, this promises to be a great weekend with a lot of fun and an opportunity to raise money for Sark's principal domestic charity, the Professor Saint Medical Trust, which subsidises the cost of prescribed medication to island residents.

My advice to those intending to travel but who have not yet booked transport is to do so without too much delay. Either that or consider making a long weekend of it – there is an 8am sailing from Sark each Monday which should get people back in Guernsey in time for work – but do check hotel accommodation before booking. The Visitor Centre staff (832345) are always pleased to help in this respect.

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Talking of visitors, I know there are many who come over from Guernsey and Jersey in their own boats and quite by coincidence I received a call from each of those islands within the last week or so.

I pointed the Jersey caller in the direction of the moorings at Greve de la Ville (near the lighthouse on the east coast) or dropping anchor in either Derrible or Dixcart bays.

The Guernsey caller was more specific and wanted to know if there was access up from Grand Greve following the big landslide there a few years ago.

The answer is an emphatic yes with the proviso that, as with all these things, even the best laid paths are subject to all manner of vagaries and so it's very much at the user's risk.

A lot of work was done last year by Jeremy La Trobe-Bateman and his band of volunteers and more has been done recently so, with a reasonable amount of caution and common sense, there shouldn't be a problem with access.

The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.