Saturday, October 03, 2009
Tenuous family links today
We have drifted close to those who might appear to be family today - but probably they were not. Well, not all of them.
I will explain.
This morning we drove, in the rain, to Ford. Are we mad?
Dawn had hardly broken as we set forth.
We somehow felt sure that south of The Downs the weather would improve and slowly it did.
We bought very little, but it was good to be there.
We met up with Henry - a dealer who used to be in the Horsham shop with me. He used to have fine furniture - maybe he still does somewhere; but today's stall was the result of a house clearance.
It was here we had the first connection with somebody we dreamed could be distant family.
There were old letters in a box - addressed to Crawley.
They were to a Joyce Parsons.
I am sure that Bill's Aunty Joyce 's mother was a Parsons.
But whatever - these letters are fun to have for a while.
They are love letters.
In the 1930s she had letters from Frank - deep and questioning. It seems he might not have been ready to settle.
I have not yet read much of the 1940s letters from Harold. He was stationed abroad. This also might have been a relationship not going anywhere.
Later we went to a house clearance sale in Ifield.
We walked in and found we knew the people.
Celia had been a neighbour of Bill's and a school friend of mine.
Celia was clearing the belongings of her aunt Rita who had gone into a nursing home.
Also there was Gwen - Celia's mother.
Now, Gwen almost became Bill's aunt. She was due to marry his Uncle Sam Brand. She told us once, that things went wrong because Sam's parents (Bill's grandparents) put a stop to it.
Strange - Gwen's maiden name was Ellis and that was also Bill's grandmother's maiden name.
Had there been some goings on that meant Sam and Gwen should be kept apart?
Stranger too, we discovered, was that Gwen's grandfather's name was Parsons..... back to the love letters.
We stayed about an hour and a half with Celia and Gwen and paid too much for some rubbish.
I felt sorry for them. Aunty Rita had a house full of complete and utter rubbish - the tackiest ornaments you could imagine and Mills and Boon books. There were not just dozens of such things - but hundreds, nay - thousands perhaps.
There was not one item of any interest really.
And only one other person came to look.
That was Jo!
After that we did have real contact (in a way) with family. We took some flowers to the cemetery. We tidied up all the plants that Bill's sister Lesley had planted. The marigolds looked lovely - but were spreading along the row of gravestones.
I cut some of the marigolds and we took them with a few carnations to Bill's great grandparents Brand's grave.
It is hard to believe that it is 22 years since Bill's mother died.
We had thought of calling on Bill's Aunty Joyce - with the Parsons connection. She lives close to the cemetery.
Perhaps it was as well she was out.
We had not had anything to eat since our breakfast at The Balaton Cafe in Littlehampton.
I dealt with a couple of payments that had come in.
Then had a shower and washed my hair.
We had green chicken curry and rice for dinner and watched some of Strictly Come Dancing and the X Factor.
Winter is arriving - Saturday evening TV, with curtains pulled - cosy indoors.
Now we will have a cuppa and watch the bit of Strictly Come Dancing that we have not yet seen.
I quibble about both these programmes - but generally get more hooked on X Factor.
The celebrities on the dancing show are mostly not at all well known to me - more so this year than before.
Then time for bed.
We will go to the Sayers Common boot sale again tomorrow - the very last one in a field until next Spring.
I will explain.
This morning we drove, in the rain, to Ford. Are we mad?
Dawn had hardly broken as we set forth.
We somehow felt sure that south of The Downs the weather would improve and slowly it did.
We bought very little, but it was good to be there.
We met up with Henry - a dealer who used to be in the Horsham shop with me. He used to have fine furniture - maybe he still does somewhere; but today's stall was the result of a house clearance.
It was here we had the first connection with somebody we dreamed could be distant family.
There were old letters in a box - addressed to Crawley.
They were to a Joyce Parsons.
I am sure that Bill's Aunty Joyce 's mother was a Parsons.
But whatever - these letters are fun to have for a while.
They are love letters.
In the 1930s she had letters from Frank - deep and questioning. It seems he might not have been ready to settle.
I have not yet read much of the 1940s letters from Harold. He was stationed abroad. This also might have been a relationship not going anywhere.
Later we went to a house clearance sale in Ifield.
We walked in and found we knew the people.
Celia had been a neighbour of Bill's and a school friend of mine.
Celia was clearing the belongings of her aunt Rita who had gone into a nursing home.
Also there was Gwen - Celia's mother.
Now, Gwen almost became Bill's aunt. She was due to marry his Uncle Sam Brand. She told us once, that things went wrong because Sam's parents (Bill's grandparents) put a stop to it.
Strange - Gwen's maiden name was Ellis and that was also Bill's grandmother's maiden name.
Had there been some goings on that meant Sam and Gwen should be kept apart?
Stranger too, we discovered, was that Gwen's grandfather's name was Parsons..... back to the love letters.
We stayed about an hour and a half with Celia and Gwen and paid too much for some rubbish.
I felt sorry for them. Aunty Rita had a house full of complete and utter rubbish - the tackiest ornaments you could imagine and Mills and Boon books. There were not just dozens of such things - but hundreds, nay - thousands perhaps.
There was not one item of any interest really.
And only one other person came to look.
That was Jo!
After that we did have real contact (in a way) with family. We took some flowers to the cemetery. We tidied up all the plants that Bill's sister Lesley had planted. The marigolds looked lovely - but were spreading along the row of gravestones.
I cut some of the marigolds and we took them with a few carnations to Bill's great grandparents Brand's grave.
It is hard to believe that it is 22 years since Bill's mother died.
We had thought of calling on Bill's Aunty Joyce - with the Parsons connection. She lives close to the cemetery.
Perhaps it was as well she was out.
We had not had anything to eat since our breakfast at The Balaton Cafe in Littlehampton.
I dealt with a couple of payments that had come in.
Then had a shower and washed my hair.
We had green chicken curry and rice for dinner and watched some of Strictly Come Dancing and the X Factor.
Winter is arriving - Saturday evening TV, with curtains pulled - cosy indoors.
Now we will have a cuppa and watch the bit of Strictly Come Dancing that we have not yet seen.
I quibble about both these programmes - but generally get more hooked on X Factor.
The celebrities on the dancing show are mostly not at all well known to me - more so this year than before.
Then time for bed.
We will go to the Sayers Common boot sale again tomorrow - the very last one in a field until next Spring.
