Advent Calendar Day 19

 

Mum

Mum was born in 1922 whilst they were living in a small cottage behind the High Street in Robertsbridge, so prior to the house my grandparents had built the other side of the railway line.

My grandmother regularly used to push the pram uphill to John's Cross to visit a relative.  My aunt was in the pram and my Mum either walking or perched on the top of the coach built pram.

She talked of being walked (or did she she perch on the pram some of the way) to Hurst Green where they would visit a shop.  There was a tailor sitting cross legged in window of the shop.  A bit of research on my part using the census found a tailor, George Baldock, but he was only indirectly related to Mum's great aunt.

In her childhood she sang in the church choir and at aged 14 was the King in a production of Sleeping Beauty as a Pantomime performance.  She was also a Girl Guide and carried the banner at events in the village and a member of the Robertsbridge Musical and Dramatic Society.

Her first job was in the offices at the flour mill I showed on Day 7 and then she joined up in 1943, going into the WAAF and became a telex operator.  She mainly talked about serving at Rudlow Manor.  She often spoke of going through Box Tunnel.

In her war service she was mustered as a:
April 1943 - rank ACW2  
Sept 1943 - rank ACW1
June 1944 - rank LACW
April 1946 1945 - rank A/Cpl (Paid)

Sometimes my grandmother would travel by train from Robertsbridge to Charing Cross station and Mum would go from Hertfordshire to Charing Cross to meet her and bring her back to our house for a short stay.  Nan didn't really like staying away from home though, so she never stayed long.

During the mid to late 1960s Mum fell down the stairs when hoovering and had compacted fractures which had to be reset under anaesthetic.  Restricted movement when she was sent home meant we all had to set to and help out around the house with the cooking and cleaning and Dad had did the personal care.  Probably best if I don't share what he said when trying to get her dressed.  Poor Mum was very embarassed at having to be helped and "baby sat" as she couldn't be left on her own.  She frequently went out with Dad on his working travels in East Anglia as that helped solve the problems.

Marmalade on the ceiling, well of course, isn't that commonplace in the kitchen?  Luckily it only happened the once but oh my, what a sticky mess Mum had to clean up.  She was making marmalade in a pressure cooker on the cooker top and a bit of the peel must have got stuck in the pressure release vent and all of a sudden it blew the weight off the vent and the marmalade just shot up to the ceiling and fell back down to the floor, the cooker top, the walls etc.  Mum quickly grabbed a tea towel and threw it over the valve as she turned the cooker off.  My sister and I had to stand still whilst she washed a narrow strip between where we stood and the kitchen door.  We had to step out of our shoes at the door and go into the hall and not come back in.  Poor Mum then had to wash the ceiling, walls, cooker, floor and heaven knows what else before anyone else could go back in and the day continue.  She must have had to wash it several times to get rid of that stickyness.  She must have been shattered.  It didn't put her off, though, and she continued to make the marmalade each year in the pressure cooker.  She made all our jam and marmalade in those days, as she did Christmas puddings, cakes, mince pies, sausage rolls etc.

She was a knitter; always had some sort of knitting on the go and she made us all our baby clothes and later our cardigans and jumpers, even hers and Dads.  She always had a knitting bag beside her chair in the sitting room.

Mum always made friends with the neighbours but wasn't one for spending a lot of time in their houses drinking coffee.  She was always busy in our house keeping it clean and tidy.  When she was still alive and visiting us I always told my children that the house had to be Granny clean before she arrived!!!

Going to church was important to her and she was of the generation who always wore smart clothes and a hat, except for the few years when they were practising Catholics and then it would always be a black lace mantilla instead of a hat.

When they moved to Bexhill she belonged to the Working Party for the church and they used to have coffee and sit and knit or make other items for charity or the upcoming church fundraising event.  Dad usually had his Probus meeting on the same day.  They were in the choir for a while but eventually decided it was time to hang up their choir robes for good.

Even when she eventually moved into a Care Home she still kept up the knitting of baby items which she would give me for the Special Care Baby units.

Unlike my Dad, Mum was alive to see all of her great grandchildren before she died.