Grannie lived to be 96. Here's VERSE I posted in January 2011 to emphasise her great age. And here's another telling detail (June 2011):
Pungent and earthy Vim was a grey powder which came in a cardboard tube. Add water and you could grind lacquered stains off aluminium pans. Perfect for my Gran who loved elbow-grease jobs.
Eventually Grannie came to live with Mum and was present when the first non-BBC, commercial TV channel was opened in Britain. She never lost her marbles but looked confused when we switched off. She'd been trying to work the commercials into the drama we'd been watching.
Grannie was middle-class and never worked for a living. She compensated by devoting herself to domestic drudgery, eschewing labour-saving devices. A giant hand-powered mangle occupied a quarter of her kitchen.
I teased her continuously about her language and her repetitive anecdotes. Strangely she liked this. She died as she had lived. Insisted on cleaning the outdoor cellar steps in January, caught a cold and succumbed, her only concern being that she would meet her pre-deceased husband in heaven, a terrifying authority figure who once caned me for clumsiness. Me, I vowed to steer clear of that sort of heaven
I remember visiting her for tea (a sort of afternoon meal) before she came to live with us. This would be not long after The War when rationing still prevailed, and often on the menu were black-market duck eggs brought by Uncle Harry from some secret source. With Mother we often walked up to GS's house in the evenings to keep her company along with Uncle Harry, and we played cards for money. As perhaps a nine or ten year old I often came away with substantial winnings. Uncle Harry was a chain smoker and it's a wonder we have all survived so long - he succumbed to the weed.
ReplyDeleteGranny S told me she remembered Queen Victoria visiting Bradford.
Thanks for this, Robbie! And Sir Hugh, your additions are most welcome in imagining the time, place, players.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine she did love to be teased by her grandson - us grandmother's will always treasure any attention we can get from our grandchildren.
Sir Hugh: A completely new anecdote for me (your card playing) and these are becoming rarer and rarer. Uncle Harry survived WW1 as a soldier and was given to odd behaviour thereafter. Perhaps he could be forgiven chain-smoking.
ReplyDeleteColette: I would caution you about seeing the bright side. I fear my teasing tended towards brutal and my Mother used to beg me to hold back a little. I was an insensitive little bugger in those days; still am, for that matter, but more fatigued in the evenings.
Prost! Long live poetry!
ReplyDeleteWait a minute ... Queen Victoria?!
RW (zS): Which queen would you prefer? Boudicca?
ReplyDelete