Local Face: Rona Heritage

When Rona Heritage returned to the area after an absence of 17 years, she realised that she could not expect to meet her former school friends but she had a strategy for meeting new people. Earlier, when she had lived in Marlow, 1987-2000, she joined Rotaract, the Junior arm of Rotary. Being an active part of her community has always been important to Rona and this helped her to get to know people locally very quickly. Now the mother of two small boys, Joel born 1997 and Rowan born 1999, Rona was pleased to find a reference to Wendover Toddlers in the New Neighbours pack which came with the house. She was soon making her way to Wend over Memorial Hall from 1.30 to 3.00pm on Monday afternoons during school terms.

Rona’s mother was brought up in Aylesbury and became an art teacher at the High School. Her father was a Halton apprentice who became a civilian instructor there then later a lecturer at Wycombe College. They lived in Weston Turville. Rona (nee Buchanan) remembers going to the old Village School where they had to walk to the Church Rooms for lunch. During her time at primary school they moved to the new premises, still in use today.

As a teenager, she occasionally attended Friars on a Friday evening in Aylesbury Civic Centre. She remembers several artists on the way up notably Debbie Harry (Blondie), also Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel as well as the obligatory Gary Glitter Christmas gig. John Otway even appeared unannounced to perform a few songs at a local n Sixth Form Dance. Rona graduated in Film and TV production. Her first work as a trainee film editor was on The Shooting Party produced by Geoffrey b Reeve with whom she had previously worked at the annual Pendley Shakespeare e Festival. Not long after, she spent 2 years working with Stanley Kubrick as assistant film editor on Full Metal Jacket. Her last a project was as Post Production Supervisor on the recent BBC version of Vanity Fair.

In Marlow Rona met and married Nick, another Buckinghamshire exile (High Wycombe). Early in their courtship Nick cycled the ancient pilgrim route through France, over the Pyrenees and along the northern coast of Spain to Santiago di Compostella.

Her work with its long hours was incompatible with “normal” family life so when her children were born she decided to stay at home and care for them. Coming from a strongly a matriarchal family where women worked, strident feminism was never a big issue for her. However, having made the positive choice to be a full-time mother, Rona finds herself resenting the way this important job is often undervalued in the current climate.
At Wendover Toddlers, Rona was delighted to find a complete mixture of adults – mothers, fathers and other carers with a wide variety of backgrounds. She feels it is very important to be pro-active and soon made new friends. This year, just to prove Mums are not brain-dead either, Wendover Toddlers entered Wendover Village Quiz and reached the quarter finals, a brilliant first time achievement. Her fellow team members were a nurse and a micro-palaeontologist!

They enjoyed the experience and will return.

Every Monday Wendover Toddlers provides an interest for adults with visits from, Body-Shop, Chocoholics, Usbourne Books, Health Visitors etc… as well as all the regular creative & social activities for the children. There s also singing at the end of every session and the occasional seasonal party or outing. The latter are so popular that tickets sell out very quickly. At the end of this term they will have an Easter Bonnet Competition and Easter Egg Hunt. Rona is currently vice- chair and is nominated for the chair when Helen Williams steps down in the spring. Rona believes that it is especially important to find new friends on moving into a new area, or when starting a family alters your routine. Wendover Toddlers is ideal for those with pre-school children.

Rona has also volunteered to help with the Footsteps Road Awareness Programme soon to start at John Hampden School. This will benefit children who miss out on the chance to walk to school and help them acquire road skills before they move on safely and independently to Junior or Secondary School.