My Gran died last week.She was aged 95, but would have been 96 on the 9th May.Her name was Clarice Annie Nash Riley (Nash was her first married name,Riley her second).She was a great person.Kind,gentle and all that knew her will miss her greatly.
She lived (During my lifetime !) at 66 Slant Lane,Beech court (flats),30 Northfield Park,9 VAle Court and lastly at a residential home (the name of which eludes me !) on Berry Hill in Mansfield.
I will be attending her funeral tomorrow and at which i will be reading a little something that i wrote a few days after her death.It is simply a "little list" of things that i remember about her, and things that i am sure others will be able to relate to also.This is what i will be reading:
She lived (During my lifetime !) at 66 Slant Lane,Beech court (flats),30 Northfield Park,9 VAle Court and lastly at a residential home (the name of which eludes me !) on Berry Hill in Mansfield.
I will be attending her funeral tomorrow and at which i will be reading a little something that i wrote a few days after her death.It is simply a "little list" of things that i remember about her, and things that i am sure others will be able to relate to also.This is what i will be reading:
Gran
96 years is a long time. But to best illustrate this time span perhaps a few events during those years would put 96 years into some sort of perspective…so here are some facts:
Gran was born on the 9th May 1912, barely 5 weeks after the loss of a gentleman named Robert Scott, better known as “Scott of the Antarctic” during his ill fated expedition, and only 3 weeks after the sinking of that most famous, but short lived of ships, the RMS Titanic.
She lived through 2 world wars. One as a child aged 2, and the next as a young woman of 27.
She was born before the Royal Flying Corps came into existence, and for that matter she was at school before the RAF was founded in 1918.
Radio transmissions across the Atlantic only took place in 1907, 5 years before she was born, and Television was not even invented until she was 13 years old!
A life lived within a very active time in history I’m sure you would agree?
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I myself have so many memories of Gran that to relay them all to you now would take far too long. So I thought perhaps I could just share a few of the most poignant ones that I have of her.
Sauce sandwiches and steak and kidney puddings served regularly at 66 Slant Lane.
The ever ready hanky to wipe dirt from small grubby faces (normally mine or Lisa’s!)
The sound of the radiogram (as MP3 players used to be known) playing Leapy Lee singing “little arrows” or perhaps a track titled “a walk in the black forest” by Horst Jankowski.
Her pride in keeping her own teeth well into her 90’s, and then only losing one after an unfortunate incident with a plum stone!
The story she told me of the doll that she was given by her teacher for her being the best behaved and smartest little girl in her class. She won it through her own determination and hard work.
Stories of holidays in Ilfracombe and numerous dancing contests, some won, some lost but all wonderful fun.
She was a great dancer in her time, I remember as a child watching her gliding across the dance floor of the Legion in woodhouse, whilst I would sit with a packet of crisps and a bottle of pop, or occasionally with a tub of mushy peas from the servery window.
Lavender, she always loved the smell of lavender, and she loved to tend her flowers in the gardens of the homes that she lived in.
I remember many years ago sitting on a deck chair with her one evening in the garden at 30 Northfield Park and as we stared up to the night sky together we saw a shooting star. She said I should make a wish upon it. I can’t remember what I wished for at the time but if it was today I would wish to see her wonderful smile just once more, gran had a beautiful smile.
Fancy dress costumes made of crisp packets.
Me getting into trouble for pulling on the alarm cord in the bathroom and causing the warden some concern after I thought it was a light switch….well it was an easy mistake to make!
Having my picture taken with her in front of an DeHavilland Vampire jet gate guard at RAF Swinderby after my passing out parade….was that really 25 years ago ?
Popping around to see her after work and having a cup of tea, she telling me how I always looked tired and me telling her that I was fine and that the grey hair was hereditary. You get it from your children!
I laugh when I recall her story about the kids she had to sort out when she lived in Northfield Park. After seeing a group hanging around a post-box she (pointing her walking stick at each one in turn) suggested that any idea’s that they may have about putting matches in the post-box should be forgotten and that they should clear off.
I can’t help but think that there was a fairly good chance that they had not even considered the very thought of setting fire to the royal mail…until a helpful old lady had given them the thoughtJ.
Her generosity, her support for the air ambulance, her donations to fund the repair of St Edmunds church clock and her purchase of an oral scope for the Robin Hood children’s ward at Kings Mill all bear witness to her generous nature, for although she was not rich herself, she was always keen to help others as best she could.
We Will all miss gran .She was a very special person to all of us in many different ways, and it always seemed that she would be with us forever. Now that she’s gone all we have is the memory of her, but we also have the knowledge that we had the pleasure of knowing her, she was a very special lady who’s life was long and sometimes hard, but who kept her dignity until the end.
God bless you Gran.
96 years is a long time. But to best illustrate this time span perhaps a few events during those years would put 96 years into some sort of perspective…so here are some facts:
Gran was born on the 9th May 1912, barely 5 weeks after the loss of a gentleman named Robert Scott, better known as “Scott of the Antarctic” during his ill fated expedition, and only 3 weeks after the sinking of that most famous, but short lived of ships, the RMS Titanic.
She lived through 2 world wars. One as a child aged 2, and the next as a young woman of 27.
She was born before the Royal Flying Corps came into existence, and for that matter she was at school before the RAF was founded in 1918.
Radio transmissions across the Atlantic only took place in 1907, 5 years before she was born, and Television was not even invented until she was 13 years old!
A life lived within a very active time in history I’m sure you would agree?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I myself have so many memories of Gran that to relay them all to you now would take far too long. So I thought perhaps I could just share a few of the most poignant ones that I have of her.
Sauce sandwiches and steak and kidney puddings served regularly at 66 Slant Lane.
The ever ready hanky to wipe dirt from small grubby faces (normally mine or Lisa’s!)
The sound of the radiogram (as MP3 players used to be known) playing Leapy Lee singing “little arrows” or perhaps a track titled “a walk in the black forest” by Horst Jankowski.
Her pride in keeping her own teeth well into her 90’s, and then only losing one after an unfortunate incident with a plum stone!
The story she told me of the doll that she was given by her teacher for her being the best behaved and smartest little girl in her class. She won it through her own determination and hard work.
Stories of holidays in Ilfracombe and numerous dancing contests, some won, some lost but all wonderful fun.
She was a great dancer in her time, I remember as a child watching her gliding across the dance floor of the Legion in woodhouse, whilst I would sit with a packet of crisps and a bottle of pop, or occasionally with a tub of mushy peas from the servery window.
Lavender, she always loved the smell of lavender, and she loved to tend her flowers in the gardens of the homes that she lived in.
I remember many years ago sitting on a deck chair with her one evening in the garden at 30 Northfield Park and as we stared up to the night sky together we saw a shooting star. She said I should make a wish upon it. I can’t remember what I wished for at the time but if it was today I would wish to see her wonderful smile just once more, gran had a beautiful smile.
Fancy dress costumes made of crisp packets.
Me getting into trouble for pulling on the alarm cord in the bathroom and causing the warden some concern after I thought it was a light switch….well it was an easy mistake to make!
Having my picture taken with her in front of an DeHavilland Vampire jet gate guard at RAF Swinderby after my passing out parade….was that really 25 years ago ?
Popping around to see her after work and having a cup of tea, she telling me how I always looked tired and me telling her that I was fine and that the grey hair was hereditary. You get it from your children!
I laugh when I recall her story about the kids she had to sort out when she lived in Northfield Park. After seeing a group hanging around a post-box she (pointing her walking stick at each one in turn) suggested that any idea’s that they may have about putting matches in the post-box should be forgotten and that they should clear off.
I can’t help but think that there was a fairly good chance that they had not even considered the very thought of setting fire to the royal mail…until a helpful old lady had given them the thoughtJ.
Her generosity, her support for the air ambulance, her donations to fund the repair of St Edmunds church clock and her purchase of an oral scope for the Robin Hood children’s ward at Kings Mill all bear witness to her generous nature, for although she was not rich herself, she was always keen to help others as best she could.
We Will all miss gran .She was a very special person to all of us in many different ways, and it always seemed that she would be with us forever. Now that she’s gone all we have is the memory of her, but we also have the knowledge that we had the pleasure of knowing her, she was a very special lady who’s life was long and sometimes hard, but who kept her dignity until the end.
God bless you Gran.
Clarice Annie Nash Riley. 9th May 1912-26th April 2008. R.I.P
1 comment:
Very moving tribute to a life well lived!
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