Luverly, Wuverly Day

How wonderful it is when ladies go to lunch!!! Three of us dining, drinking and laughing ............. were we the only ones having fun? Looked like it. Thank you for sharing with me such a good meal and time.


Memories:- at Auntie Edie & Uncle Charlie's ..................



This was another ‘fairytale moment really because I was always allowed to roam this long garden so long as I didn’t go out into the road – talking of which: just up from Uncle Charlie’s was a large piece of land which always had a couple of goats on it. It wasn’t fenced off and the goats were tied to a pole (by a large rope I might add!!) and the house on the corner of the junction of Haslucks Green Road and Redhouse Lane was a large, rambling, detached house with a large round bay on the front the bedroom had a large ROUND window to fit. Amazing piece of glass and soooo different.
Uncle Charlie had vegetables and fruit growing on his land and I think that they were quite self sufficient, I don’t know what his trade was, they were just there and here’s the best bit …….. I was allowed to eat anything I wanted to!!! Peas, strawberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries, plums – eeeeeeehhhhh! Not plums, yuk!!!!


That’s how I found out it was a damson tree!! Lol Often than not the ‘bird bath’ needed weeding and one time I brought some seeds to plant in there, they didn’t do much good, probably because the soil was so shallow and dry.
I can remember having a big party for John and Maureen when they got engaged and that Maureen, not being used to alcohol, had to be helped up the stairs – this was in Stechford so I suppose they were about the same age as Ena & Tony. Maureen was an Au Pair at a big house just down the road from Uncle Charlie’s and after they were married they lived in a caravan in the front garden until they moved into Cranmore Road in Shirley. Before they moved they began to build a house on some land that Uncle Charlie owned at the back of the Post Office down in Peterbrook Road, all gone now. I can remember one hot summer, no ……………. it really was this time – very hot - and poor Maureen was very pregnant with Elspeth, their eldest daughter. I had never seen a pregnant woman close up and I just loved her as she talked to me about the baby. She had to sit down a lot and could do very little to help so I did as much as I could, fetching this and that. They moved to Scotland later on, I don’t remember when but I know that it was when we lived in Hall Green, Ena had just finished with Bob Booth – my hero – and they introduced him to Betty (Maureen’s Sister). Bob and Betty hit it off, were married and moved to Scotland; maybe John and Maureen moved then, I know that they spent holidays with Bob & Betty after the marriage. John & Maureen had three girls and are very happy. They used to come down to visit and always called in to see Mam, indeed they were with her when we went round to tell Mam that Leanne had died. They stayed on for the funeral and were a great comfort to me, one needs family at that time.


John and Maureen had three girls, Elspeth, Moira and Judith. Mam and Dad went up for the weddings and had a wonderful time, I think they looked upon John and Maureen as their own children.

This is Moira's wedding - Elpeth is the Maid of Honour.

John was the son of Uncle Charlie’s first wife, she left Uncle Charlie with the boy and so when Auntie Edie married Charlie they adopted him.
There I have said it.
Mam promised Uncle Charlie that she would never tell John about it but I have not made that promise and I believe we have a right to know our roots whether it is good or bad. John was very loved by everyone, I know that I loved them both; they were like another brother and sister to me. Thankfully we are still in contact and correspond every Christmas.