Showing posts with label grandfather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grandfather. Show all posts

20090619

Wednesday July 31, 1974

Bored all day. Sleep on the bus coming from the YP and collapse over the tea table, listless and over-heated at about 6.

Dearest Denny rings after 7 and we almost decide to go out tomorrow night, but decide to wait until the time comes to see how we feel. Have a bath at 9 listening to the American 'Top 20' on Radio Luxembourg - some of the records were quite good, but otherwise it was mediocre.

Sit watching tv and drinking martini with Lynn. An interview with Glenda Jackson. Bed before 12. Sit reading Queen Mary (which was due back on July 25), and almost doze to sleep. Auntie Eddy (Jadwega) rings at 12.30 in a panic about Uncle Bert's missing birth certificate. She rings me because I am the family archivist, and expert on births, marriages and deaths. I say the certificate was last seen in the possession of Grandad, who died in September, so I suppose Grandma has it. Evidently, the authorities refuse to give Eddy a passport until she becomes a naturalised Englishwoman. I promise to get a copy of the birth certificate from Leeds or wherever the Bramley records for the 1920s are kept. Bed and sleep after 1.


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20090428

Thursday September 13, 1973

Grandfather's send off. Go to Benton Park in the morning and come home at 12.0. Mother, Dad and I leave for Pudsey to collect grandfather's oldest friend, Joe Dickinson. He seems upset when he gets in the car, and Dad diplomatically keeps him talking to prevent him dwelling on the sadness. Arrive at Liversedge, or was it Heckmondwike (?) at 1.30. The four of us go for a coffee. See Uncle Harry at 1.45.

The day is somewhat cold and overcast and the five of us go into the local park in order to kill time before 2.30. Auntie Janet comes running into the park to tell us that Auntie Jadwega is coming on the bus (from Nottingham) to Heckmondwike, where we can then meet her. By 2.30 she is still nowehere to be seen. We can do nothing but leave for the chapel of rest without her. Uncle Joe, Auntie Ethel, Jeremy and Janet and young Nicholas are coming down the street with Uncle John and Auntie Sheila. Arrive chapel for brief prayers. Grandma, looking very brave, with her sons, arrives. Thus, we are all assembled. Still no Auntie Jadwega.

Go to the crematorium, where Auntie Dorothy is waiting. No Uncle Les or family. Terrible service - the Salvation Army. It's not as though I have any prejudice against the Salvation Army, but they made it such a theatrical affair. It's not as if Grandfather ever possessed a tamborine. The cremation was terrible. All ultra-modern and repulsive.

It appealed very much to my sense of humour when, at the end, a hymn came on the record player and the curtains were drawn across the coffin. Somewhat like a Dave Allen sketch on tv. One cannot beat a good traditional burial. Auntie Janet was screaming at the end.

Leave at 3.10 for Grandma's at Nelson St, Liversedge, where about 20 members of the Rhodes family are gathered. Auntie Dorothy went immediately home of course. Pandemonium! Auntie Jadwega arrived in a taxi at 3.15 - all in black with a massive black umberella. (She's the Polish-born wife of Dad's brother, Uncle Bert). She was very distressed of having missed the funeral of her father-in-law. Still half in and half out of the taxi she was shouting in her thick Polish accent: "Oh I could cry. We go first to Wakefield, then to Barnsley Oh so slowly. I vos so mad." The noise she was making had everybody out on the street and Grandma with Auntie Janet came to investigate. She bounded from the car and embraced Grandma. "Oh I am so fumigated!" (I think she meant to say she was 'fuming' with rage and not fumigated.) Poor Auntie Eddy (her nickname) had come all the way from Nottingham only to remain at Grandma's for 10 minutes, clutching her big umberella between her massive knees. I think she must be 16st.

Anyway, I hope she really didn't mean 'fumigated' or else our house is lousy today. I may joke, but I love her really. Leave at 3.45. Take poor Joe Dickinson home and bring Auntie Jadwega back to Pine Tops for tea. Spend a quiet night. Mum is being experimented on by Aunt Jadwega, who is a masseuse.

After Dad had taken Eddy for her train at 8 he went out for a drink with Mum and Uncle Harry, my favourite uncle on Dad's side of the family. They came home at 12.0. with loads of drink, and we all sat until 2am. Uncle H stayed the night.

What a day!

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20090427

Tuesday September 11, 1973

Mother says I have looked terrible since going back to school, but I realise that school is not the reason why I look the way I do. My heart is shattered. I have never felt so sick. Never did I imagine that June would leave my life so soon after becoming a major part of it. She will have received my letter this morning.

Grandfather is to be cremated at Dewsbury on Thursday. I am going. Mother never expected me to go. John does not wish to miss work. Dad spent the day with Grandma and accompanied her to the Register Office to record the demise of that great Matriarch, who, for nearly 63 years, reigned over an Empire consisting of one third of the world's population. (Surely, you're thinking of Queen Victoria ?)

When I think about it I am glad I did not get into college. I will not apply next year. I love home far too much to go chasing round County Durham for three long, moneyless years. I have made my mind up to find a job - what sort of job I do not know. But one thing is certain, education ends for me in November.

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Sunday September 9, 1973

I awake on a very small sofa at the residence of Mr C.H. Ratcliffe and discover that I am still intoxicated. John and MM laugh at me. Chris is preparing a chicken for lunch in the kitchen. I proceed to polish off another pint of ale along with a coffee at the same time. My head feels terrible. The day is very hot and sticky and the sun is blinding me through the windows.

Evidently, between 4-6.0am I sat near the stereo wearing Chris's headphones crying like a baby whilst listening to a Tamla Motown LP. I dislike Tamla, but it wasn't the cause of my distress - it was my devastation over the loss of June, made much worse by the exessive alcohol. I yelled for two hours solidly!

The party was really fantastic and poor Dave, who has never been in such a state before, went home on the bus with his trousers all covered in vomit. Andy left at 8.15 this morning - poor soul.

MM goes at 1pm and then John and I catch a bus. I feel really sick, still wearing my 'Teddy Killer' T-shirt I board the 1.30 33 bus - all other passengers clad in best Sunday clothes. Spend the remainder of the day relaxing quietly.

Rang Mother at 1.0pm from Chris's and she says Dad spent the night with Grandad, who is critical. They go back at 6pm. Uncle Harry rings at midnight to say he died at 11.50 pm. Although I was not even fond of him I cannot help feeling rather sad. Bed 12.15.

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20090424

Sunday August 26, 1973

Re-gain consciousness at 12.20pm. Lunch at 12.30. Very nice meal. Take a bath immediately afterwards. Sit up to my neck in steaming water listening to Alan Freeman with his records from the last 15 years. Very nostalgic indeed. Relax in the lounge with Mother and John until tea.

Later: ring Dave. He is collecting John and myself at 8.15 - taking us to the Emmotts. Ring Chris shortly afterwards. The poor soul went through £3.50 yesterday! I thought my £2.50 was bad enough.

Father, in one of his moods, acts terribly. He wants to go to Wakefield to see his father. Lynn hates the idea and starts crying. Nevertheless, Dad takes Mother off in the car. Lynn is still crying when Dad comes back a few minutes later begging forgiveness. They all go out together. By 8 o'clock they are all back - completely happy.

Hear on the 6 o'clock news that King Gustav Adolf of Sweden is even worse. He will probably die before morning. After all, the old boy is 90. His daughter, the Queen Mother of Denmark, is 70!

Later still: Dave picks John and me up. Go to the Emmotts where all the crowd sit drinking in a bored sort of way. At 9.15 we go to the Queen's. MM and Chris are more concerned about the 'June business' than I am. If she doesn't want to contact me then it's her affair. I am too proud to worry about this.

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20090423

Wednesday August 15, 1973

A very pleasant day, and in the afternoon, tremendously hot. Princess Anne is 23 today. Her last birthday of spinsterhood. Next year she will be Mrs Phillips.

Come home from work to find Uncle Harry having tea. He took Dad, Mum, Lynn and Susan to the Commercial at Esholt at 1.0 this afternoon. What a beautiful life these idle rich lead!

Uncle H is the bearer of sad tidings. Grandfather, it seems, will not be with us when the leaves on the trees turn to gold and fall off. Yes, Santa Claus will have one customer less this Christmas.

When Uncle H goes home at 6 Mum and Dad decide to pay a call on grandfather and they come back with a sad story indeed. The old boy looks to have lost 6 stones. But, he hasn't lost his apetite... I never imagined for one moment that he would.

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Sunday April 1, 1984

 4th Sunday in Lent Mothering Sunday New Moon Sunny, bright, &c. Smothering Sunday. All Fool's Day. Busy. Rob came and so too did th...