60 Years Ago Today

I've written this story before as  A Tale of Two Mums but couldn't resist putting this painting in my journal again today.


1961:   When I was 9 my mum was very ill. I remember someone asking about her and my Nan saying "Trom-bone!" I knew what a trombone was and was puzzled. She was trying to secretly say TB.

That year must have bee difficult for my Nan, looking after me on her own for 6 months, with my mum in hospital in Seaham Hall and Homewood, Whitehaven and also my granddad dying of cancer, being in Newcastle and West Cumberland hospitals at the same time as my mum. A friend took her to the North East for visiting once or twice, but the local visiting my lame Nan had to do using the bus.

I only saw my mum a couple of times in those 6 months, children weren't allowed to visit in those days. I played on the hospital lawn and if she was well enough my mum came outside to see me.

So! While my mum was convalescing in Homewood, she would be visited by the Occupational Therapist who would encourage patients to do craftwork. One day she saw my mum painting and the next day she arrived with a lily from her garden.. On this day 60 years ago my mum signed and dated the painting. I wasn't there to see it.

1975:   I started going out with a teacher from the boys' school adjacent to the girls' school where I worked as a lab tech. When his mum and dad came over to visit her introduced me to them. "You'll be Freda's daughter, then? I knew her when I worked in Whitehaven. She worked in the office and then she was in hospital for a while."

When The Boyfriend and I went to visit his parents she took this painting off the wall to show me. She had kept a patient's gift to her all these years!

1977:   I married that boyfriend!

So back to reality in Sheffield: I'm so pleased these two still enjoy going to one of the city's parks. It passes time away in good exercise and uses up a bit of their energy. I've included them as an Extra.