In between baking apple crumbles and whipping up home-made bread and butter pudding for her customers, Gift Café supervisor Debbie Williams is busy practising her cornet.
Debbie is getting ready for Remembrance Day when she will be stepping out of the kitchen in her chef’s whites at 11am on Friday, November 11th to play the Last Post to her customers.
Debbie, 51, from Chester will be playing one of the world’s most distinctive melodies in honour of Armistice Day in the garden of the coffee shop on Chapel House Lane, Puddington.
Debbie, a member of Trinity Girls Brass Band, the first all-female competing brass band in the UK, said: “I’ve been playing the cornet since I was seven years old. I was tiny and it was the smallest instrument to choose from, so it caught my eye.
“I’ve played the cornet all over the world and even King Charles III has heard me play. I love playing the Last Post because it is so symbolic. I usually play at a local war memorial or a Remembrance Sunday walking tour but this year I wanted to play to the coffee shop customers.
“I’ll be baking ration scones in the morning and then playing the Last Post at 11am. We’re hoping lots of veterans will wear their medals and come and listen.
“I take my cornet everywhere with me. Whenever I get a spare moment at work I love playing it, which amuses people out for a walk in the surrounding countryside.”
Gift Café is a not-for-profit coffee shop run by Retain Wellbeing, a not-for-profit community organization focused on making lives better for those with memory difficulties and their loved ones. It is a dedicated dementia friendly coffee shop which is open to all.
• All veterans wearing their medals will be entitled to a 15% discount in the café on Friday, November 11 from 10am-noon.
• Gift Café, Chapel House Lane, Puddington, Cheshire CH64 5SW
