To continue

Before I go any further I must apologise for the poor quality of this photo. I had a printer,scanner copier but when my Windows XP Home Edition hard drive froze. I then went to the next generation. That was Vista. Now nothing works with Vista that worked on XP. It is the same if I upgraded to Severn. Again nothing that works on Vista will work on Severn.. What a rip off. That is microsoft for you. Anyway I had to take this photo by using my camera, hence it is only fair. If you expand it though, perhaps you will realise just how prestigious her Father was. To manage that huge place. She wanted for nothing was waited on hand and foot. There were servants galore and the mode of transport was pony and trap so there were plenty looking after the horses. I can't remember if I said this but showing is her parents Arthur her brother and herself with the dog. She did tell me what it was called but I forget. As you will notice it was taken in 1897 the Queens Diamond Jubilee. 60 years on the throne. I guess Arthur would be about 11 and she would be about 4. When her father died suddenly, they were more or less turfed out and had to find something to do. From what I found, her Mother with her started a Cake shop. How successful it was I do not know. I can only say this, she mentioned that her Mother told her never to marry a man much older than her because she would be left alone for so long. I guess that is what happened to her Mother. Through other people I was told that her Mother suffered from ulcerated legs. This unfortunately also happened to her. The nurse would come daily to change the bandages on her legs. They would be soaked. It was about this time that she never went upstairs again. In fact for months she just used to sleep in her chair. It was similar to a carver chair that used to be sold as a dining set. This however was very ornate. Unfortunately, she gradually became incontinent, the smell was not good. She would hold a wet cushion that she had been sitting on, in front of the gas fire. I don't think I have to say more. Gradually over the weeks she became worse. I went over just the same as if nothing was out of the ordinary. The district nurses became involved. There was a Sister who I became friendly with. I called her Joan, she also called me by my christian name but said to me that if any of the nurses were around, would I please call her Sister. This particular morning she came across as usual. We generally discussed how things were going on. This day she informed me that she had just got the DSO. Innocently I told her that it couldn't have happened to a nicer woman. Upon that she laughed and then told me what DSO stood for. Unfortunately the old lady had completely soiled herself and Joan was there alone so had to clean her up. The DSO stood for distinguished shit order. I burst out laughing, she too laughed we then had a cuppa and a cake. I was keeping her Nephew and Niece informed as to how things were going. I told them that if they wanted to see her they had better get over soon. They told me that it was not possible to get over for a while. A couple of days later, Joan came over to see me. I told Joan, that in my opinion she was not long for this earth. Joan had previously told me that people who are on their own and are under the district nurse. A woman was asked to sit with her until she passed away. Anyway Joan told me that she did not think it would happen tonight and left. Later in the afternoon she came back and said to me that on second thoughts, she would arrange for someone to stay there just in case. When I got up the next morning about 7.30am there was a note on the door saying that she had died at 5.05am. I immediately went over to get the budgie. I asked her every day if it had been fed, she always said yes. Well I fed it and I don't think it stopped eating for about 15 minutes. The bird was being looked after by another woman. Later that morning the woman who had stayed there came to see if I had got the message. She told me something that made me wonder. She said that the bird was chirping all night until the moment she died, then the bird was silent. Well I notified her Nephew and Niece, true to form as she told me, within the hour they were at her home. In the meantime they asked me if I could arrange for the undertaker to fetch the body and take it to the Chapel of Rest. That was the end of her life.

Not however without telling you this. Before I say more about these things. You will notice I put a mug there to give you some idea as to how large they are. I should have done that with the ornament. The Bulldog Breed. That by the way stood about 7" high.

Now to those pieces of glass. It is almost certain that all who read this blog and all who will ever read this would have no idea as to what they are. I certainly didn't. I think it was because I had a restaurant that she gave me them. She presented them to me as if they were very expensive items. Of course to her, they were important. She told me many times that they had Commercial Travellers stay at the hotel. This was their evening sweet. She told me that those two items were a jelly and custard mould. Fro what I could gather, the jelly was in the one without the handle and the custard was in the one with a handle so that the custard could be poured over the jelly once it was out in a dish. I just thought, how small the jelly and custard was.

Oh well I hope I have not bored you to tears. More soon.