Red Door

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to return to a house that I once knew. This is the door of what was my Maternal Grandmother's house in Cathays, Cardiff. I think it was a blue/green colour when she was there.

I remember visiting with my mother before I was old enough to go to school. The house had a somewhat ramshackle kitchen and an outside toilet. The rooms had lots of old furniture and I have a vague recollection that the bedrooms had ceramic bowls and jugs hat would have been used for washing. There was also a galvanised iron shed in the back garden. One summer I painted its roof with bituminous paint and earned 2s 6d a day from my uncle.

I'm sure that it's all very different now. I imagine that there's a fitted kitchen and an inside toilet and modern furniture and even plumbing in the bedrooms.

But I'll never know.

Sadly we said goodbye to my uncle today. He died after a short illness. We had a very moving ceremony and people had wonderful memories of his kindness. He was the last of my mother's generation.