A FORCE FOR GOOD IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE

INEZ HENRIQUES’ decades of advocating for emerging Black communities in Wolverhampton and surrounding areas after co-founding and operating the West Midlands Caribbean Parents’ and Friends’ Association in 1958, were acknowledged with an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in 2019.

Now 97, she was pleased to follow up her previous interview with The Voice shortly after being honoured to share her thoughts and enduring aspirations.

VG: “So Miss Inez, lovely to speak to you again! How are you?”

IH: “One of my daughters hasn’t been too well recently but she’s bearing up and I am too.”

VG: “How do you feel about Windrush celebrations now with so much more emphasis on the achievements of the socalled ‘Windrush Generation?”

IH: “It’s really good to see it celebrated much more. It is important to share information about it with those coming up.”

VG: “You were a major part of founding the Association, alongside your late husband Granville and other friends. How does it make you feel to know that it is still going through the Elders’ Group.”

IH: “I’m so happy! We have new members coming now to the Group every week on Wednesdays. It is growing again after coming back together after covid.”

VG: “How did you all manage during that time?”

IH: “That was really sad, a hard time for us all. We had to stop in our houses and make phone calls!

We lived on the phone, but we had to cope with it! Only close friends and family (only essential caregivers, as attending daughter Molly HenriquesDillon BEM interjected) came around. It was a struggle but we managed. We were so keen for the telephone calls to keep in touch.”

VG: “And what is it like now with the Group?”

IH: “Oh! Lovely! I really look forward to it. I go on Wednesdays. We have bring and share, keep fit and do different activities like dominoes and have more members.”

VG: “If someone said to you in 1958 when you helped set up the Association you would one day get an MBE, would you have believed them?”

IH: “Oh no! No, we just came here to work. I’m very proud and happy of what the Association achieved. It was a big achievement, not just for me but also my community.

The Association helped people get along but now the Group is helping me along. I’m glad to still be a part of it. I’m happy for my achievement and with Molly following on (by getting a British Empire Medal for her contribution to nursing during the pandemic in 2021), and also her children achieving good things too.”

VG: “With your years of experience and success in pioneering and inspiring, how would you advise those generations coming up to live long and prosper as you have?”

IH: “Do something with their lives, get a profession. Work hard. Pass your good work and knowledge along to other young people coming up and support them in what they want to do. I’m still here to give as much support as I can, even at 97, and I always will until the end of my time.

I’m a great believer in the Bible, go to church and receive blessings to achieve more. I am trying my best to still do that with my family’s support. They strengthen and take good care of me!”

STILL GOING STRONG: Inez pictured in 2018 – a year later she was awarded an MBE in the late Queen’s New Year’s Honours List; below left, Inez in 1959

Next generation leading by example

WHILE Inez and Molly can brandish their MBE and British Empire Medals respectively, the family’s next generation is looking to continue the family’s awardwinning legacy.

While far too young to have experienced the Association during its heyday, the seeds of aspiration, hope and ambition it planted in generations of local people decades ago are evidently still bearing fruit today. Inez’s granddaughter and Molly’s daughter Sommer Stringer recently received an inspirational leader award for her role as Quality Lead at the national Changing Lives charity. Ear- lier this year, her brother Daryl Dillon nailed an Exceeding Expectation in his role as Clinical Information Manager at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospital.

“These are amazing achievements which we must celebrate and share,” said Molly, fresh from attending the coronation of King Charles III alongside fellow British Empire Medal winners.

“We are so very proud of them. I was also so proud to have been invited to attend the coronation and witness history. It was good to see a multicultural group of people there, mixed together with VIPs, not set apart.”