People
Meeting VILMA EDMONDS
Meet the wonderful Vilma, who in her 70's is embarking on her latest project which will introduce people to the East Algarve and also give people who live here the chance to visit other culturally enriching places.
B
orn in Buckinghamshire, Vilma Edmonds met her husband Wilfred at the age of 27 during one of her frequent yearly visits to Europe from New York, while working as a secretary fund raising for Cornell university. Husband Wilfred Meynell was the overseas director of Schweppes which was later to become part of Cadbury. It was during this time that he masterminded the advertising campaign using the colourful tiles with the logo 'Schweppes Algarve',
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many of which can still be seen today. Together they went on to live in Sloane street, Belgravia, London. Over the next 7 years that Vilma calls a "drastic learning curve", wherein she literally lost everything, but then as she says in her usual positive way: "that's another story". Vilma found herself being Chairwoman on her local residents association, which involved helping the local community. She found this to be a roll which put her in a position to make things happen, leading her
from strength to strength, gradually building confidence and the ability to re-build her life. She eventually bought a studio apartment to refurbish and let out, and before she knew it, found herself in the property business, developing properties in the West Sussex area. Vilma had spent a lot of time in the Algarve with her husband, and her brother had a home close to Tavira. It was during these visits she had fallen in love with the Eastern Algarve. Vilma won't mind us saying that she's in her 70's and is a truly remarkable
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