Bernina 570QE to Shropshire

The phone rang and with it an order for a Bernina 570QE to Shropshire. However, let’s start at the beginning.

The Monday morning dance began, going through all the weekend web orders, emails and reminders. Just then, Jenny put a cup of coffee on my desk – lovely. Before the first sip, the phone rang – seconds out, round one.

Hello, Bambers.
A pause, but one with someone on the other end, waiting.
Hello, Bamb, I began to repeat, then a voice came.
Hello. Hello. The voice carried a tremulous tone.
Hello, Bambers
Hello. Is Alan there…
Alan speaking, I said.
Hello Alan, you might not remember me. My name is Mrs A. I used to be the Needlework Teacher at St. ……… High School…. But it was over thirty years ago.

There was a time when every week I would visit two or three or more schools to service their sewing machines. Going back to forty-five years ago and in the days when a teacher wore a pleated skirt, a nice blouse and a rinse and set. I knew more Needle Work Teachers than you could fit on three school trip coaches to Jodrell Bank. I still see one or two, but only one or two. The rest have faded into the forest dim…

A few of the old gears in a dusty room down a corridor of my mind began to slowly click.
Mrs A. I said.
That’s right. Do you remember? I had a classroom full of Berninas that your father delivered to the school in the 70’s. I was so pleased when I started work at the school. I’d come straight from college in 1979 and the teacher before me, Mrs Jones, had retired.
A blurry figure appeared far out on the desert horizon, you know the one, and slowly it began to come into focus.

Mrs A, Mrs A…. Wasn’t your classroom next door to the food room, and you used to give me some of the cakes that the girls had baked?.
That’s right, Alan. I did.
You remember me, then.
There was a little cough, one of those where something catches. Then a pause while Mrs A composed herself.
I’m so pleased you do, she said.
The picture grew clearer and I remembered Mrs A. A nice lady, small and petite and quietly spoken. But, should any toe cross the line in her perfectly ordered classroom, a word and a look was all it took from Mrs A for all that order to be restored.

We chatted away about old times and teachers long gone and times long gone and order long gone.
And it was all rather lovely. Mrs A told me how she’d retired some years ago and now lived in a cottage in Shropshire.
But to business, Alan, said Mrs A.`
Certainly, I replied.

Alan. I’m a quilter and I just love quilting. I have an old Bernina 440 that I bought from you many years ago. But I’d like to buy a new Bernina, my last one, I think. Two of my friends at the local quilt club both use a Bernina 570QE, and they both swear by it.
I see.
Yes, so what do you think about it, I always trusted your father, and then you with all the Berninas in my classroom, Alan.
We indulged in further chit chat about the ‘old days’ and I found myself thinking that I was only 26 instead of 62 and – doesn’t it all go by so quickly. Mrs A told me her husband has passed away two years ago and how sewing and quilting had ‘saved her’. In fact I hear that quite a lot.

So I told Mrs A what I tell everyone who enquires about the Bernina 570QE. It’s a tremendous sewing machine and an ideal choice for the quilter or the busy dressmaker. The construction is solid, the stitch quality superb, and the built-in Dual Feed and BSR features are the cream on top.
Mrs A gave me her details and placed an order for a 570QE.
She wished me well, and was gone.