My mum remembers Joy ...

Yesterday was my mum's birthday - she's now eighty nine - 

I'll be ninety next year my mum says wonderingly - 

We'd driven from the airport under sad English skies - 

Before we went to the garden centre, my mum said do you remember your early memories?

She said I was five or six, and my grandmother, my mother's mother, came to stay - I was afraid of her because she was strict - 

My mum had just had Dot, but Dot had a twin - her name was Joy - 

I was asked to go into a high room, and there was a chest of drawers, and in one of the large drawers they had Joy - 

I couldn't see, so they lifted me up and I saw her inside - I can still see her face - her fine black hair over her forehead  - 

I touched her face and I said - oh, isn't she cold - 

Later we ate gammon and chips in the garden centre restaurant - Anne then bought my mum some lupins - 

15.22

Tuesday 31 March 2015

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