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Vera Copeland At birth she was not expected to live due to a tumour on the face which affected her left eye, however, she survived 32 operations in the first six years of her life. Her interest in music began at an early age and she started studying music and the piano and went on to take a degree, with honours, at the Trinity College of Music in London. She became a music teacher, firstly at Ethan High School in Southsea and later taking private pupils. From her early years she was involved in the life of the Church at St Mary's Portsea, where she played the hymns for the Sunday School and in the late 1960's when she moved to Waterlooville she became a teacher in the Sunday School and played the hymns. She was a regular worshipper and communicant. In recent years she has been receiving Holy Communion at home. During the Second World War she tried to join the Land Army, but as she was not strong enough she quickly learned and became a shorthand typist and bookkeeper in the Wicor Shipyard at Portchester. During this time she also gave concerts for the Red Cross and 'sing-along's' for the elderly. Vera Copeland had many hundreds of pupils through her hands, young and old, and she had a large photograph of many of her pupils taken at a presentation on her retirement after 70 years of teaching at the age of 86! She had two happy marriages and she wrote of her life, "I thank God for that exciting gift of music and for a happy life." We are grateful to her for the legacy of £1,000 in her will. May she rest in peace and rise in glory. Fr Malcolm Ferrier |
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page last updated 30 SEPTEMBER 2001 |
