Fitting tribute for "bundle of life" (From Gazette Series)

Fitting tribute for "bundle of life"

A FITTING tribute has been paid to a late pillar of the Wickwar community.

A room in the village community centre has been named after Olive Pollard, a parish councillor and school governor who tirelessly worked on behalf of organisations and voluntary groups within Wickwar.

Mrs Pollard died in July 2004 following a sudden illness. Her death shocked her family and the village community.

Wickwar Community Centre committee has now renamed the community room of the thriving village centre, located in Alexander Hosea Primary School, in memory of Mrs Pollard, who lived in the village most of her life.

A plaque bearing her name was unveiled at a special ceremony recently to honour the popular lady who was always busy helping her young and elderly neighbours.

Her husband Mervyn told the Gazette this week: "It is a nice gesture. Olive did do quite a lot in the village, she was involved in most organisations.

"Obviously this will be a lasting memorial to her. In years to come, people will see the plaque and if they want to find out about her they will be able to."

Martin Summers, parish council chairman and community centre committee member, said: "She was a main driving force for the community centre and this will keep her memory alive for immemorial."

Mrs Pollard, who lived in the High Street with her husband of 30 years, died aged 76. She had three children, Nell and twins Gerald and Teresa, and seven grandchildren.

Born in Wotton-Under-Edge in 1928 to the Twyning family, Mrs Pollard had three brothers and a sister. She first moved to Wickwar as a newlywed to Alan White and soon became settled at her High Street home.

She worked with her mother-in-law Rose in the village hardware store, which later merged with the newsagents and stationary business, before turning to nursing. For 15 years she cared for patients at Frenchay Hospital.

Some years after Alan's death in 1972, Olive formed a friendship with Mervyn and eventually married him. Throughout their happy life together, Mrs Pollard helped her husband, who has problems with his eye-sight, to continue his much-loved hobby of gardening and growing vegetables for village shows and fairs.

Mrs Pollard was on Wickwar Parish Council and Holy Trinity Church committee and was involved with Environmental Link, the Charities Commission, the Avon Crescent Elderly Persons Complex, the Wickwar Educational Foundation and the Good Companions. She was also responsible for the booking of the community centre at Alexander Hosea School, where she was also a governor.

At her funeral at Westerleigh Crematorium, villagers celebrated Mrs Pollard's life and marked her contribution to Wickwar by producing the town mace, only ever brought out on special occasions.

Mr Summers described her as a "bundle of life".