Pilgrim Homes' supporters raised the rafters so roundly at a service of thanksgiving in Yorkshire last October that at times the person at the piano could hardly hear the notes she was playing.
The service at Mirfield Evangelical Church on October 18 2003 was to celebrate the Society's newly acquired site for a scheme for elderly Christians in the North. The extra fervour came from the sense of victory after battle, for it had not been an easy acquisition.
The Yorkshire Auxiliary had been working towards a scheme for elderly Christians in the North for more than 60 years, and it took more than two years to find a suitable, level plot of land in the hilly Yorkshire region. Then, after months of roller-coaster negotiations, Pilgrim Homes was almost pipped at the post by a national supermarket chain which had been eyeing the site for a new superstore.
