Getting to know ...... Elisabeth Calmes

In the latest of our series of interviews Morag Jordan chats to Elisabeth Calmes.

At the age of ninety-four Elisabeth is the oldest member of our congregation and has been closely connected with our church for over a quarter of a century so she is well known to long-standing members of Holy Trinity. However, for those who have only been coming to services in recent times Elisabeth will not be a familiar face because she has been house-bound since the time of Covid.

Elisabeth has gone to church throughout her life: her parents were committed churchgoers so as a child she was brought up to attend church and went to Crusader Sunday School classes every week. Her family had French au pairs to help look after the children, so Elisabeth always had an interest in France which she visited as a teenager; then after university she landed a job in Paris where she met her future husband Bernard on the very day that she arrived there!

Before moving to Nice, Elisabeth and Bernard lived for many years in Lausanne where Elisabeth was very involved with the Church of Scotland; then following their move here in 1999 Bernard became an active member of a French-speaking protestant evangelical church in northwest Nice. Preferring to worship in English, Elisabeth had walked past Holy Trinity but had found it most uninviting because at the time the exterior was so drab and dark with lots of overgrown trees. Fortunately, Elisabeth’s sister soon came to visit and as she did not speak much French they decided to try a service at Holy Trinity. At this service Elisabeth met Frank Slaymaker who was incredibly kind and welcoming; as a result of the warmth of this welcome Holy Trinity became Elisabeth’s church where she soon made many friends; she feels this goes to show that welcoming newcomers is always so important. Although Bernard preferred French-speaking services he soon also met everyone, as he used to come and collect Elisabeth afterwards from the coffee hour.

Elisabeth quickly became involved with the church, volunteering with the Sunday School for many years which at the time attracted quite a few youngsters every week. She was also a stalwart member of the Church Council and was on the interview panel that appointed Peter Jackson after Ken Letts retired. Elisabeth describes herself more as a 'behind-the-scenes' person who likes to support the main players. Until very recently, Elisabeth was still designing and producing the posters for Holy Trinity events such as the Vide Grenier

Over the years, Elisabeth has found much to inspire her at Holy Trinity on her spiritual journey. She remembers fondly the Bible Study groups in the presbytery, followed by soup made by Fr Ken. She especially loved the many retreats in Laghet, and the days out with a church service which Fr Ken organised: the visit to the Matisse Chapel in Vence was a particularly memorable highlight for her. Elisabeth sums up Holy Trinity as providing “a wonderful welcome - it’s a really lovely church”.

Although Elisabeth is now unable to travel down to attend church, she follows what is going on at Holy Trinity by reading Fr Jeremy’s weekly newsletter and other articles on the website. In addition to visits from Fr Jeremy, our church wardens keep in regular touch with her: Jill Pirdas visits Elisabeth regularly in her home and you may well have seen Richard Challoner on his laptop chatting away to Elisabeth and others after the Sunday service.

When I asked Elizabeth for a photo she suggested this sunrise view from her balcony taken in January a few years ago, explaining that she now spends much of her time looking out on the sea from her armchair ........ but not as early in the morning these days!