VIRB

...I sat next to her, she's very small now, it's true that old people shrink, she was never big but now I tower over her. I asked her how old she was, she smiled and said 'I thought I'd never say this about myself but, im 90' I was surprised, I knew she must be over 80 but I was suddenly very proud of her, although I'm not quite sure why. I told her I was going to do our family tree, she started to recall again her mother and father, giving me their names and when they must have been born. She started to tell me that she was about 3 when her dad came back from the Navy to discover there was trouble and fighting in dublin, former Kingstown (now called Dun Laoghaire after a ship that was torpedoed in its bay in 1915) he made the discision that it was not safe for his young family so moved them to Bedfordshire in England. She has a memory of being held in hospital while gunman were firing at eachother just outside the window.

Before they left Ireland her family at that time consisted of her mother Ethel (family name Crook), who brought her up along with her grandmother Georgina (family name Grifiths), her Aunty Eileen and Eileen's husband Frank. As well as a great uncle Frank and aunty Eileen, Who are seen as children in her albums, these children were left when very young with her grandmother when her own mother went to live in Canada.

She is happy when talking about her past because her long term memory is good, she tells me that her and Howard would climb trees in their home village of Woban sands. She says they were close as children but lost touch until they met again after school when she took an apprenticship at the nearby town's hair salon, his father had got him a job at the local barber's and they began to date. Her feet get cold and she wraps a blanket around them telling me about the cockroaches in her flat when she left home to be with the village boy she loved.