... and nothing but the truth

A Child Of The 1950's - Part Four

Chapter Four

My Maternal Grandmother

My maternal grandmother was named Daisy Leaker. She was brought up in the village of Worle, on the outskirts of Bristol. Her mother was called Ellen and her father was a baker, but he died very young at the age of 26 due to respiratory problems. Flour caused lung problems for bakers in those days. She had a sister called Alice and a brother called Harry. It must have been so hard for Ellen, being left with three small children to bring up alone.

I am not sure when Daisy moved to Bristol, but she lived with her mother Ellen and her sister Alice at 45 All Hallows Road, I believe in rented accommodation.  Her brother Harry lived close by. He had one son called Silvester.

It has been mentioned that Daisy was jilted at the altar before she married George Wright, which may have been on the rebound. Apparently, people who knew them both thought they were not suited at all, she being very ladylike and he being a bit on the rough side.

Daisy met her husband George Wright when she went with her friend to Eastville park where a hospital had been set up to treat soldiers wounded at the Front in the First World War. He had been wounded in the shoulder and sent there to re-couperate. When he was better, he was sent back to the trenches.

I called my grandmother Nanny and she lived very close to my school, about 100 yards up the street and my mother and I used to go in every day to have a cup of tea with her every afternoon, when school was over.

My mum was very fond of her mother and I loved Nanny so much. She had white, fluffy hair and was a little plump and short. She was a kind, gentle soul. She wore ugly, big black boots, one was higher than the other, by about 9 inches, as one of her legs was short. She had suffered a broken leg during a bicycle accident and the leg was thinner and weaker than the other and she walked with a limp. I suppose it had not been set properly, which is a great pity. This would not happen nowadays with our modern hospital treatment. She always wore either a blue or pink dress with a white apron over it. Her life was not easy, but it could have been lots worse I suppose.

When she was younger she was a tailoress and it was her sewing machine which set me off on the love of dressmaking, as my mother inherited it when she died.

I was six when she died (I think she was 75) and I wanted to see her laid out in the front room of the house, but I was not allowed and I always regretted that mum wouldn't let me. I had a mini tantrum about it and cried, but my mum was adamant, I was not allowed in. Actually, my mother said years later that she had looked beautiful in death, like she was only sleeping. Apparently, Nanny saw an angel at the bottom of her bed before she died, which the evangelist Billy Graham said means you are really going to heaven.

In those days people weren't taken to Funeral Parlours to be laid out, they were laid out in their front rooms. These rooms were seldom used and the curtains were often pulled across to keep out the sun. It was a very Victorian idea which must have persisted into the 1950's. People were closer to death in those days, and now we are possibly too far away from it. There has to be a middle ground somewhere. My mother can remember Daisy taking her to see a child who had died when she was young, not sure why she did that.

George, nanny's husband, was not close to me and I feel sad about it now. He had four daughters the eldest was Kathleen then my mother, Margery then Phyllis and lastly Betty. He was not close to them either.

I am going to write a separate chapter about him as he was quite an interesting character.

I wish I knew more about Daisy, but as she died when I was so young, I never asked many questions. I know that she did go to church at one time. However, she survived losing a father at a young age; living with a weak leg; The First World War; The Great Depression; The Second World War; And a husband who was a drunk. It was a very hard life indeed! All of these awful times took a large chunk out of her life. It is so hard to imagine it.

When Daisy died she had just two dresses in her wardrobe. (Those were probably the ones I mentioned before, a pink and a blue.) This makes me feel incredibly sad!

My cousin moved into the house Daisy and George rented and later on her father bought the house from the landlord. So she knows a little more about their life together than I do.

Daisy used to sing hymns to my cousin and nursery rhymes and they used to watch the people going up the road to the church, in their Sunday best clothes on an evening. She did not go herself as her leg was not strong and she couldn't walk very far, but when she was younger she used to go to a local chapel.

My cousin remembers her father taking Daisy in her wheel chair to the park with the rest of the family. My cousin and her brother used to sometimes get on her lap on the way home. I can't remember a wheel chair at all.

Daisy loved my father as he had a good sense of humour and, before I was born, mum and dad often took her on holiday with them to give her a break. I have a few old photos of them all together. I have a photograph of us all at Brean where we used to take a caravan holiday. We are sat on chairs on the sand outside of the caravan and I am stood by Nanny eating an ice cream with one hand and Nanny is holding the other. I was so happy to have found that old photograph.  I hadn't realised she came on holiday with us when my sister and I were small.

I know I've said this before, but I really loved Nanny and I still miss her now.