Sister Win Minton

SPECIAL FEATURE

Sister Win Minton has been a resident at our Blackpool home since the year 2000. Prior to this she lived in Birmingham for most of her life.

Win’s mother and father were poor to the point of starvation. Win was born in 1919. At the age of 10 months, she caught pneumonia. Her mother was too poor to get any medical help and was worn out with lack of food and nursing a sick baby. Her brother visited and gave her two pence to go to the "pictures" for a break. She hadn’t eaten for days and needed that money but he persuaded her to use it for the cinema. She was too embarrassed to go to the nearby cinema in case her neighbours saw her, so she went to one in the next district. She could not read, so did not know which film was being shown, but it was free to go in, and she saw the Photo Drama of Creation.

Win realised this was the Truth, was baptised in 1939, at the age of 20, then pioneered from the Bradford pioneer home for about five months. However, she was desperately needed back home, so she returned to Birmingham to help her mother.

The war years were particularly difficult. Win and her mother sent food and clothing parcels to their German "relatives" (brothers and sisters) although it had to be from their own rationed foods. They included items of literature in the clothing parcels, calling them "undergarments". These were meant for inside the body rather than outside. During this time, many brothers were imprisoned, so Win cared for the congregation literature and magazines and assisted with the accounts. Win saw the number of congregations in Birmingham grow from one in 1939 to the many that there are today. She also had the privilege of working on both the Dudley and East Pennine Assembly Halls, and was present at their dedications.

Win recalls working at a spectacle frame makers during the war. They had an "essential works" order, so they could not sack her, nor could she leave. After discovering that she was on the Conscientious Objection register, the whole firm refused to speak to her for five years. Her work was thrown at her, and if she had a query the foreman would wait until she was near, then turn his back to her. An answer would be written and flung at her feet. Win says "I survived but it was hard".

She also has another memory of living in Birmingham during the Blitz. Her cellar was reinforced and was used as an air raid shelter for 8 families. To drown out the noise of the bombs, they got the phonograph out and listened to Brother Rutherford. Win says "the neighbours could go up and get bombed or stay down and get bombarded with good news. They stayed."

Win says that nowadays she has slowed down to almost full stop, but she is "waiting for the day when her wheelchair goes in the antiques museum in the New World of Jehovah’s making".

News Updates

We would like to welcome Chris Pugh as Deputy Manager of our home in Merthyr Tydfil. Chris will be assisting Andrew Baines as the new wing opens and new residents arrive.

Our website now has an updated "latest news" page. This will show recent events and activities at our homes, as well as building developments and employment opportunities. By default, all the latest news will be displayed, but it will also be categorised, so that you can select an individual home or another classification. We hope you will enjoy reading it.