This lady right here is my Grandma, my Dad's Mum. I never got a chance to meet her and my Dad didn't know her for very long either; she died when he was seventeen. What a trauma for him! Imagine having your mother ripped away from you at a time in your life when you're still finding your feet.
I think she has a beautiful face and I can see a lot of my father in her. I like her laughter lines and her lovely smile. I wonder what she was looking at when this picture was taken? I love the spots on her clothes and how dark her eyes are.
This is the only picture of her that I have and I've had it for a good few years now. She's been all over the country with me and has made me feel happy when I've looked at her.
I wonder what she was like? Dad tells me that she would have loved me very much. I think I have her cheeks.
She would have been one hundred years old today. So happy birthday to you Grandma that I never met. I hope we do one day.
Hello Sarah
ReplyDeleteHere are some random memories after reading your posting.
Yes, you are right, it was a very traumatic time for Dad, my brothers and I when our Mum died. She came from hospital (where they could do no more for her) to die at home with her family, which I feel is what she would have wanted.
I remember when I was aged 8 the whole family moved from London SW14 to a farm workers cottage surrounded by fields and a mile from the local village which was half way between Guildford and Horsham on the A281. We moved to the country for Dad's health after he had recovered from TB at a sanitorium on the Isle of Wight.
Springbok Farm was an idyllic place to live, after East Sheen and the Upper Richmond Road, imagine the freedom, the woods and fields to roam in and make camps and fires and have adventures. Since her passing I have often wondered how she felt about this complete change in her environment after spending her earlier life in London. I never heard her complain even though she couldn't just pop to the corner shop or have the stimulating environment that exists in a large city.
In her youth Mum played violin with an orchestra in London near where she lived and I would have loved to taken her to concerts and taken her around in the car that I was soon to acquire. A love of classical and other music was one of the great gifts I received from my parents.
Another happy memory was a day trip Mum and I made to London when I was about 15. We went by coach and Mum took me to see 'the sights' in the city where she was born, spent her childhood and lived until we moved to Surrey. I still have the photos I took on that day. I was well into photography at that time and did all of my own developing, printing and enlarging in my dark / bed room. I had a little business going developing and printing other peoples films as well, all B&W then.
I was born the year WW2 ended and food rationing continued until the early 50s. I still have my ration book stamped by Platt's Stores on the corner of Milton Road and Sheen Lane. It could not have been easy feeding and clothing 3 hungry and rapidly growing boys at that time and more difficult when Dad was on an agricultural workers wage when we moved to Alfold just after Lizzie 2's coronation.
We didn't have a fridge or washing machine until I was 15 and no telephone, all things that we take for granted now. Life was not easy for parents after the war.
In many families of my parents generation a lot of things were not spoken about, true emotions were not expressed particularly in front of children who were very often "seen and not heard". I am so pleased that you and I can communicate in the way that we do.
I remember my Mum (your Grandmother) with much love and gratitude for bringing me into the world, for her selfless work and nurturing and instilling the values that have helped me through my life.
Without her my wonderful daughter would not have been born and your beautiful son Isaac. So the cycle of life goes round, we were born to be happy and joyful and to manifest Love in its truest sense, that is, I believe, why we are here. It is so simple!
Thank you for posting 100th birthday greetings for your Grandma.
With much Love
Dad X
I didn't know her either and often wished I had. I loved reading what you wrote and I am sure she would have loved you as much as your Nanna did. They both would have adored your beautiful son. Family is so important and I am glad ours is so close and loving. Bless you my much loved child.
ReplyDeleteMum x