a (would have been) 100th birthday

We would have been celebrating my Nan’s 100th birthday today if she were still with us. My Nan died 4 years ago which seems a lifetime ago in terms of her absence from my childrens’ lives but is just a blink in terms of the miss from mine.  She was such a beautiful, funny, loving soul and my childhood is filled with memories, both momentous (taking the train to Weymouth to stay in a caravan two days ahead of my parents arrival!) and ordinary (the best maker of dippy eggs and soldiers and banana fritters).  If I close my eyes I can still hear her voice over the crackly intercom at her flat – ”oh it’s you Nic, I’ll buzz you up’‘ in her lovely Forest accent and with so much surprise and delight you’d have thought I hadn’t pre-arranged it at all.

 I wrote a little bit of Nan’s life story in a post to mark her 96th birthday, the first birthday we had without her.  She was born a triplet and one of 14 children so I’m sure life was challenging at times.  Yet she always responded to any suggestion of that with  ”we were lucky, there’s always someone worse off than you.  It was hard sometimes but we had a lot of fun too.  Mother always had a smile and joke so we did too”.  And then she’d cry laughing as she recalled stories of sleeping in the bath or 6 to a bed or scrumping apples in her knickers.

Euan was 15 months old when Nan died and when we visit Gloucester Cathedral he always asks to light a candle to remember her.  When L is older we shall start to show him photos and videos of a very special person he never had the chance to meet.