This morning, November 24th, Barry Vargas, a lifelong member of the Association, rang me to inform me that his wife, Carmen, had died after a short illness. Carmen originated from Venezuela. Unfortunately , while on holiday in her native country, because of Covid, she was "trapped" there and because of the lockdown, she was unable to return home to Barry for several months. The lockdown had a profound effect on Carmen and it affected her health and mental state very severely, and she was unable to attend this year's reunion.However she was starting to recover. Sadly a week ago she had a fall and her health deteriorated resulting in her death this morning.
Carmen herself was a wonderful, exciting and colourful member of the Association, and she and Barry were never short of a story. Up until her illness she seldom missed a reunion.
We will miss her terribly and she is a great loss to the Association. Our thoughts and condolences are with Barry at this difficult time.
Update.
Today December 21st, on behalf of 19 Signal Regiment, I had the privilege of attending the funeral of Carmen. Carmen was a truly wonderful lady. In her early days when living in Venezuela, she would fly fortnightly on shopping trips to Miami in Florida. She was, in those days a shopaholic and had a truly interesting and wonderful life. She had a dual British/ Venezuelan citizenship, but was justly proud of her adopted country. She used to travel “home” to Venezuela for the whole of the winter months to spend time with her family in the sunshine. She was not a great lover of the English winters. We shall miss her lovely smile and infectious laughs at reunions. RIP Carmen
