Baileys

My mother came from a large family, she was one of 7 girls and 1 boy. One of the sisters did not survive infancy, the brother died a long time ago, and slowly the sisters have been dying. The youngest (Beattie) died a few months ago and today a few of the cousins got together. It was primarily the younger ones (there are 21 I think), only Beatties daughter remains under 60, not all of the cousins are themselves still alive and have spread themselves around the world, with one in New Zealand, another in Australia plus a good spread around the UK, with their own advancing years it was left to the younger ones to remember Beattie and also share a few of the family secrets that have crept out over time.

Fred (AKA son) was one of twins, but the other did not survive, no one knows whether the twin was a boy or a girl, you didn't talk about such things then. However, Fred was also born with 3 ears, one being removed and resides in Great Ormond Street. Win, had quite a history too, including one daughter who was a GI baby it seems. Beattie, herself was quite a lass, having had a string of boy/men friends including a convicted murderer.

Then there was the dark family secret of Adolphus, our grandmother's brother, who disappeared off the scene, family legend is that he was hit on the head by a cricket ball and ended up in a sanitorium, but he was never talked about so how much is true we'll never know. 

We do know, however, that the oldest sister, Elsie, could have had issues in today's world - her mother's maiden name was Cowdery, and she married Tom Cowdery who was some sort of a cousin. So when it came to security questions, her mother's maiden name was the same as her married name. Tom and Elsie ran a family farm in the village of East Hendred, but having only produced daughters sold up when it was time to retire. The site of their dairy (where I was hosed down when very young after having fallen in the cow dung) is now a vineyard.

Our Great Grandmother had a shop in Marsh Road, Leagrave, which was also the post office at the time.