Thursday, October 18, 2007
14th 15th October It was 20 Years ago
Many newspapers and TV and radio programmes are looking back 20 years this week to The Great Storm.
This remarkable weather created great havoc, uprooting many trees and causing damge to property and far, far worse led to deaths.
But Bill and I hardly noticed it - indeed I slept through it.
Bill was wakeful, downstairs, but his thoughts hardly perceived the fierce winds because earlier that day his mother had died.
It is hard to believe that we have been without her now for 20 years.
She had been diagnosed in the summer with a brain tumour and we knew that nothing could be done. She was taken from Crawley hospital to St Catherine's Hospice to live her final few days.
She was buried in Snell Hatch Cemetery, close to the family home.
We recall that she would comment, as one does in life, that nothing special need happen after death...."just dump me on the compost heap" she would say.
In truth she very closely got her way.
That part of the cemetery had once been allotments and the family had an allotment, which Bill's Dad tended, growing vegetables for the family table.
The grave is very close to the site of the Monk allotment - and the compost heap.
.JPG)
A week or so ago, Bill was at the grave with some flowers. His father was laid to rest there in 1992.
Since his father's death the ashes of both Aunty Pink (father's sister) and Uncle Bill (mother's brother) have been interred on the plot.
We have yet to see if Bill's cousins will add Uncle Bill's name to Aunty Lil's. It should be done.
.JPG)
Close by the entrance to the cemetery is the grave of Bill's great grandparents - George and Annie Brand. Annie died first in 1925. George died in 1932. Of course Bill never knew his great grandparents.
But he now likes to make sure the grave is cared for.
.JPG)
The cemetery is a place of peace and beauty with some lovely flowers and shrubs. This is the remembrance garden.
This remarkable weather created great havoc, uprooting many trees and causing damge to property and far, far worse led to deaths.
But Bill and I hardly noticed it - indeed I slept through it.
Bill was wakeful, downstairs, but his thoughts hardly perceived the fierce winds because earlier that day his mother had died.
It is hard to believe that we have been without her now for 20 years.
She had been diagnosed in the summer with a brain tumour and we knew that nothing could be done. She was taken from Crawley hospital to St Catherine's Hospice to live her final few days.
She was buried in Snell Hatch Cemetery, close to the family home.
We recall that she would comment, as one does in life, that nothing special need happen after death...."just dump me on the compost heap" she would say.
In truth she very closely got her way.
That part of the cemetery had once been allotments and the family had an allotment, which Bill's Dad tended, growing vegetables for the family table.
The grave is very close to the site of the Monk allotment - and the compost heap.
.JPG)
A week or so ago, Bill was at the grave with some flowers. His father was laid to rest there in 1992.
Since his father's death the ashes of both Aunty Pink (father's sister) and Uncle Bill (mother's brother) have been interred on the plot.
We have yet to see if Bill's cousins will add Uncle Bill's name to Aunty Lil's. It should be done.
.JPG)
Close by the entrance to the cemetery is the grave of Bill's great grandparents - George and Annie Brand. Annie died first in 1925. George died in 1932. Of course Bill never knew his great grandparents.
But he now likes to make sure the grave is cared for.
.JPG)
The cemetery is a place of peace and beauty with some lovely flowers and shrubs. This is the remembrance garden.
