The Cherry Lodge Cancer Care annual Lights of Love ceremony was held on Sunday 24th November 2024. As previously, this very special gathering took place outside Cherry Lodge’s shop in Church Passage, Barnet. The weather forecast was pretty dreadful (despite a temperature of 17°) with Storm Bert bringing ferocious winds and heavy rain across the country. Locally, it had already effectively got rid of the leaves left on the trees outside the Church, but we were fortunate that the rain held off until the event was almost over.
Organised by Tina, with Margaret in the role of ‘continuity girl’, the ceremony followed its well established pattern – with music, poems, the reading out of the names of loved ones to be remembered, glowsticks, the switching on of Christmas lights, and finally refreshments.
Music this year was beautifully performed by singer Christina Katsi, who opened with “I know where I’ve been” by Queen Latifa. Later, she would bring the ceremony to a close with “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.
As always, readers were chosen to represent different groups within the CL family: Tina (staff member) read “Be a Voice not an Echo”; Damian (CL member, photographed in front of the church) read his own poem, “Merry Christmouse”, an amusing tale with a serious message composed specially for the evening; Carol (trustee) read “A Fallen Limb”; and Geoff (therapist) read “Smiling is Infectious” by former Barnet resident Spike Milligan.
At the heart of the ceremony is the reading out of the names of people to be remembered, whether because they have died or because they are in need of special support through difficult times. The readers, Freddy and Sue (members of the Fundraising team) performed their role perfectly. By lighting their glowstick on hearing the name of a loved one, listeners feel personally involved as well as helping light up the gathering.
Sadly, Storm Bert put paid to the original plan for the Christmas tree (donated by Dunelm) to be placed outside the shop to be lit. Instead, it was put up inside the shop for the lights to be switched on, which was ably done as in previous years by loyal Cherry Lodge patron Theresa Villiers. (Unfortunately, there is no photographic record of this stage in the programme due to a malfunctioning of the amateur photographer’s phone!)
The final act was Christina’s stirring rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, the Cherry Lodge ‘anthem’ (with apologies to Liverpool FC). As emphasised by Margaret, the line “When you walk through a Storm” had particular resonance this year!
Mulled wine, mince pies and doughnuts were then enjoyed – but people didn’t stay chatting for long as the threatened raindrops quickly gathered intensity.
After the ceremony, the tree was taken to the reception area at Howard House, where it was photographed (see below). The Lights of Love tree will be lit during the day, visible from the street, until early January.
Click on the small images below to see larger, complete photographs.
