Tuesday, August 30, 2011
1st prize in a beauty competition - collect a plastic duck!
We got up late to a day when neither of us felt like doing much.
Actually, that's not fair. Bill was busy this morning mowing lawns.
And he has been round with the vacuum cleaner.
I decided to look through a few more of my parent's letters........several hours later, I realise that I have already sorted a great deal.
I am almost at the position where I shall have to see if there is much point attempting to make complete letters out of all the loose pages - dozens and dozens of them.
At this point, I thank my Dad. After the war, which is when he was called up to the army and working at a boring clerk's job, he received daily letters from my mother and he must have stapled pages together.
Dad wrote daily to Mum. Before I was born life wasn't so bad for him - he loved the land and enjoyed his time working on farms. The time after he had been called up was hard for him - leaving me wondering which of them needed his discharge on compassionate grounds the most!
My mother's letters are a great read, describing her life and mine during the time when she was living in a remote cottage, after Dad had been sent to Cheshire and North Wales.
It was a lonely life and she worked really hard. She had some friends amongst others who lived way out in that country spot and they seemed to have supported each other.
I have very vague memories of the place and some of the people. We left there when I was just 5.
She must have walked for miles - the nearest bus stop was some distance away.
From there she could reach Tunbridge Wells and on to her family home in Tonbridge.
I am learning lots from this project - mostly about who my mother was.
But there are wonderful snippets about me.
Oh my!
I won a beautiful baby competition in 1946!
I won a yellow plastic duck!
I wonder if my Dad approved of my having been entered! I haven't yet found the reply to that letter.
I have enjoyed reading about the cat named Winnie - who seemed to produce lots of kittens.
I was really pleased to realised that my Aunt Valerie had spent quite a bit of time at the cottage.
There is much to mull over - and later to discuss with Roger.
But Roger had not yet been born (Robin neither) when all these letters were written - so I guess that between us we will still not be sure of some things.
But I am sure that this project is good for me.
I feel a tremendous bond now with my mother, which had been missing. I have spent my adult life wondering if a good mother daughter relationship would have developed as I became a young mother - I always liked to think so.
And now - only 3 years short of my 70th birthday, I can be happy about my mother, despite her sometimes hard and much too short life. I feel like that she would be proud of who I am now and how I have worked through things.
Soon I must return to my own reality and continue to make something of my own world.
Reality......only 22 days until we fly to Thailand. Hooray! I need some warmth and sunshine.
Today they announced that this has been the coolest summer since 1993.
Actually, that's not fair. Bill was busy this morning mowing lawns.
And he has been round with the vacuum cleaner.
I decided to look through a few more of my parent's letters........several hours later, I realise that I have already sorted a great deal.
I am almost at the position where I shall have to see if there is much point attempting to make complete letters out of all the loose pages - dozens and dozens of them.
At this point, I thank my Dad. After the war, which is when he was called up to the army and working at a boring clerk's job, he received daily letters from my mother and he must have stapled pages together.
Dad wrote daily to Mum. Before I was born life wasn't so bad for him - he loved the land and enjoyed his time working on farms. The time after he had been called up was hard for him - leaving me wondering which of them needed his discharge on compassionate grounds the most!
My mother's letters are a great read, describing her life and mine during the time when she was living in a remote cottage, after Dad had been sent to Cheshire and North Wales.
It was a lonely life and she worked really hard. She had some friends amongst others who lived way out in that country spot and they seemed to have supported each other.
I have very vague memories of the place and some of the people. We left there when I was just 5.
She must have walked for miles - the nearest bus stop was some distance away.
From there she could reach Tunbridge Wells and on to her family home in Tonbridge.
I am learning lots from this project - mostly about who my mother was.
But there are wonderful snippets about me.
Oh my!
I won a beautiful baby competition in 1946!
I won a yellow plastic duck!
I wonder if my Dad approved of my having been entered! I haven't yet found the reply to that letter.
I have enjoyed reading about the cat named Winnie - who seemed to produce lots of kittens.
I was really pleased to realised that my Aunt Valerie had spent quite a bit of time at the cottage.
There is much to mull over - and later to discuss with Roger.
But Roger had not yet been born (Robin neither) when all these letters were written - so I guess that between us we will still not be sure of some things.
But I am sure that this project is good for me.
I feel a tremendous bond now with my mother, which had been missing. I have spent my adult life wondering if a good mother daughter relationship would have developed as I became a young mother - I always liked to think so.
And now - only 3 years short of my 70th birthday, I can be happy about my mother, despite her sometimes hard and much too short life. I feel like that she would be proud of who I am now and how I have worked through things.
Soon I must return to my own reality and continue to make something of my own world.
Reality......only 22 days until we fly to Thailand. Hooray! I need some warmth and sunshine.
Today they announced that this has been the coolest summer since 1993.
