FROM working for Queen Elizabeth II, sharing the dance floor with Anthony Armstrong-Jones and hitchhiking to Spain, Westville’s Wendy Saunders certainly seized every opportunity that life offered her.
The charismatic 79-year-old swimmer, who has been competing in galas and championships for the past six years, shared a detailed account of her adventurous days and life-changing moments.
Seated in the lounge of her Northcliffe Road home, which is tastefully furnished with a variety of antiques, Saunders browsed through the pages of her scrapbooks as she reminisced about her eventful journey through life.
After working for five years at the Uranium Laboratory in her home town, Springs (Johannesburg), Saunders ventured out of South Africa on an unscheduled trip to England in 1960.
Saunders remembered how she came to meet members of the British royal family: “I met another girl, Kathleen Jessop, in London and shared a room with her. Through a friend of hers who worked for the Queen Mother in Clarence House, we were hired for summer jobs in the Queen Mother’s summer castle, Birkhall, in Scotland. We made the beds and washed the windows. The Queen Mother was such an incredible and humble woman. While working for the family I also got to spend time with Prince Charles, who was 12 at the time, and Princess Anne, who was 10. Dancing with Armstrong-Jones was certainly another highlight for me.”
“After the summer in Scotland Kathleen and I returned to London, and thereafter hitchhiked to Spain. It was getting cold in England and jobs were hard to find. Hitchhiking was economical enough.”
She travelled through Ireland, America and Portugal before returning to South Africa in 1962. The adventurous mother of one settled down from her travels to marry Jim Saunders a year later, and adopted her daughter at three weeks old. This year marks the couple’s 51st wedding anniversary.
Saunders, a talented artist who also speaks Spanish, has always had an interest in real estate. She also possesses a great passion for porcelain dolls, currently owning about 400, which are housed in a room that is solely theirs.
This inspirational grandmother of two has proven that a fulfilling life stems from taking advantage of the opportunities that one is presented with and making the most of them.
