HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MUM!

Today would have been Mum’s 97th birthday, but sadly she died on 22nd December 2019.  Whenever we spoke about her birthday, or about getting older, she always said that the one thing she wanted was to live long enough to get her 100th Birthday Telegram from The Queen - well, she may not get the Telegram, but I think we will be having a BIG party on that day in 2024!

Mum was born in the Maternity Hospital, which at that time was above the Swimming Baths in Milton Road, Swindon - something I never knew until just before she died when I was asking her questions.  In fact, I never even knew there was a Maternity Hospital there.  She was named Elizabeth Susan, but was known as Betty for most of her life.  I have had some difficulty finding out about the early life of my Grandmother - my Mum’s Mother, but we think her first name was Elizabeth, so she could have been named after her and I’m guessing her second name may have been after  her Father’s Mother, whose names were Susan Annie.

The only photograph I have of her as a young girl is at the top left of my collage, when she would have been about 8 or 9 years old.  The family lived in the Railway Village in Swindon and Mum went to College Street School, which has now been demolished.  One of her childhood memories was going out with a wheelbarrow collecting wood to take home to make a fire - they were very difficult days during the Great Depression of 1929.  

The family, which included her parents and an older brother, Alfie and a younger sister, Barbara, moved to Beatrice Street, where they rented a house before my Grandfather bought one just along the street.  From the age of 11, Mum went to Ferndale Road Girls’ School, which was about a 10 minute walk away and her Certificate of Character from 1938 states that she was “a reliable girl, very willing and good mannered.” 

During her school days, Mum was a member of the “Young Britons”, a Conservative Party initiative similar to the Cubs and Brownies for children between the ages of 6 and 14.  She left school when she was 14 and after getting a glowing reference from the Chairman of the Young Britons, started working for J. Compton Sons & Webb, the biggest employer in the town that made uniforms for the armed services and for the Great Western Railway.  Mum was a machinist, which was probably very hard work, and I know that she made many friends whilst working there, many of whom she kept for most of her life.  

When she was 18 years old, Mum joined the ATS, the Auxiliary Territorial Service, which was the women’s branch of the British Army during World War II.  She was stationed at Wroughton, a village near Swindon, where she said she had to clean the tank tracks, which was a very dirty job.  However, she often told us, with some pride, that she was also a Silver Service Waitress for the officers and was always quick to explain that she was no ordinary waitress!  She also used to go into Swindon to do shopping for the officers, so she was obviously well trusted by them. 

Whilst in the ATS she sent to Blandford in Dorset where she met my Father and I was born in 1945.  Sadly that marriage broke down, so after living in Barrow-in-Furness, where my Father came from, for several years, she came back to Swindon and lived with her Mother, her Father having by then moved to Oxford.

Mum had many other jobs during her life, all of which she enjoyed and she often spoke of the friends she made whilst she was working and many of them kept in touch with her.  Mum loved to bake and always made wonderful cakes and pies - her pastry was wonderful and just melted in your mouth;  she made a fantastic Lemon Meringue pie, but sadly I didn’t inherit that pastry-making skill from her.  

Mum remarried in 1957 and the bottom left photograph shows her on her wedding day.  My sister, Karen was born in 1958 and then in 1964 my brother, Paul was born.  Mum had seven grandchildren and twelve great grandchildren and she was very proud of them all.

The middle photograph is Mum on our wedding day in 1968 and the bottom right shot I took just a few months before she died.

The main shot is Mum with my sister, Karen, brother, Paul and me two weeks before she died - taken by Mr. HCB - and the only decent photograph we have of us all together.

Mum was definitely a strong-willed character and thankfully, retained her sense of humour and wits until the day she died.  She loved nothing better than doing the lottery and her crosswords and word puzzles and in the months before she died, I often went round and sat with her while she did the crossword - her brain was still very active, and she didn’t need much help - in fact, very often by the time I got there, the crossword was completed.  

I remember going round to see her on one occasion, not long before she died, when she said to me “I want you to do something for me, but you won’t like it!”  I wondered whatever it could be until she said “I want you to go over to the shop and buy my lottery tickets.”  She knew that we had never ever done the lottery, mainly because as Christians, we didn’t believe in it, but on this occasion, how could I refuse?  I did tell her that if she won, then she owed me half because I would have bought the tickets, so she laughed and said “All right then!”  However, she didn’t win, at least not that time!

So Happy Birthday, Mum - I had better start practising my pastry making because for the big party in 2024, people will expect a Lemon Meringue Pie!

“Behind all your stories
     is always your mother’s story,
because hers is where
     yours begins.”
Mitch Albom