SENESCENCE

Day-trip to Peakville

BLEKE — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:45:26 +0000

On Monday 24 January 2011 I drove to Peakville and back.

At the Old Man’s house, a damaged Christmas card had belatedly arrived. The Royal Mail had enclosed it in a plastic sleeve. The postmark was 24.12.10; the address was correct, but incomplete, with a district-name but no postcode. When I opened the card, there was no writing inside. So I don’t know who sent the card.

Mrs CJ has replaced her old car with a Mercedes.

I quickly packed a suitcaseful of clothes to take back to Suburbia Somnolenta, then I drove to Bert’s. The grey car with the dent was on the forecourt. I saw only the younger man and the taller woman behind the counter. (Probably the shop does not do much business on Monday lunchtimes.) The batter on the fish was not very crisp, so I doubt that today’s cooking was from the hand of the master.

Back at Suburbia Somnolenta, I received a phone-call from Mrs CJ. She had not noticed that I had been visiting – she was phoning simply to check how I was.

I told Mrs CJ about a piece of folk-art I had brought back from Peakville with me: a fruit-bowl made of pieces of wood salvaged from houses in Peakville that had been destroyed in the Blitz. Who the artist was, and exactly where in Peakville the houses were, is information that is now lost in the mists of time. The Deceased Lady’s mother would have known. (Were the houses near where the Deceased Lady’s father’s sister used to live?)

Another thing that I told Mrs CJ I had brought back with me was the rug that she and Dr A had folded up and that the Old Man had put back in its place.

Filed under: People, Places, R.I.P.

Saturday 15-1-11: catching up on sleep

BLEKE — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:11:54 +0000

This week I have been feeling tired and lethargic. Yesterday I was in bed at 20:30 exactly, and quickly fell asleep.

Filed under: R.I.P.

Wednesday 12-1-11: condolence

BLEKE — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:03:41 +0000

I received a card of condolence from Dr & Dr LA.

Filed under: People, R.I.P.

Tuesday 11-1-11: offloading and uploading

BLEKE — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:41:09 +0000

I threw away a lot of rubbish from the Old Man’s house, and I loaded up the car with numerous items that I wanted to keep. Then I drove back to Suburbia Somnolenta.

Filed under: R.I.P.

Monday 10-1-11: funeral

BLEKE — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:28:10 +0000

The day of the Old Man’s funeral.
The service was taken by Oliver Andrews, a curate of my acquaintance.
Harry did not attend, but two people from the Sunlit Uplands golf club did attend. One of them told me that his daughter, the first person in her family to go to university, had been a student at Cambridge.
The Old Man’s former colleague Mr MD also attended. I hadn’t seen him for many years, and reminded him of the party he and his wife and the Old Man and the Deceased Lady and I had attended on (I think) Boxing Day of 1981. In fact, I probably hadn’t seen him since then.
I asked the funeral director to send the spray of flowers to Eastwood Priory, for Francesca or whichever staff nurse was on duty.
After the funeral, cousin Y and her husband O, and L the son of the Old Man’s nephew C, came back to the Old Man’s house and we talked for an hour or two.
L has put on a lot of weight in recent years. I always think of him as being young, but he is now 50. He remarked that when he and his sister were in primary school, each Friday evening their parents put them on an express bus to a nearby town, to visit their grandmother. L said he would not do that with his children. I suggested that if anyone did such a thing nowadays, “Social Services would be called in.” At this, L laughed.

Filed under: People, Places, R.I.P.

Sunday 9-1-11: two more cousins

BLEKE — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:20:20 +0000

The Old Man’s late nephew C has a daughter called T. She phoned me to say that she would not be coming to the funeral. Health problems prevent her driving such a long distance, and there is no suitable train service.
She spent a while telling me about her health problems, such as high cholesterol, and a hiatus hernia.
T is worried that she may develop dementia quite early in life, as her father did. By his late 60s, C was incapable of basic DIY such as laying floor-tiles.
T’s younger brother L, who had a heart bypass in his late 30s, now has developed type 2 diabetes.

Filed under: People, R.I.P.

Saturday 8-1-11: flowers and neighbours

BLEKE — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:07:23 +0000

I did some shopping at MegaGroce. On the way back, I stopped at the florist’s that Mrs CJ had recommended, and ordered a spray of flowers for the funeral. (I am asking other people to donate to a cancer or dementia charity of their choice, rather than sending flowers.) While I was perusing the brochure, an elderly customer remarked, “Doesn’t it smell lovely in here.” She had an accent that I thought might be a Shoreville accent. In fact she was from Bayville which is not far from Shoreville. She told us that she had lived in Peakville for 52 years – it would be 53 years at her wedding anniversary in March. I told her that “My Dad is from Shoreville.” When the customer from Bayville had left the shop, I remarked to the woman behind the counter that I needed to start saying “was” rather than “is”.
While I was unpacking the shopping at the Old Man’s house, Harry passed by. He had not heard that the Old Man had died, and he seemed quite moved by the news.
Harry and I spent some time reminiscing about people who used to live thereabouts. There was the family in the house opposite where Mr & Mrs JG now live: the Thornboroughs. The husband’s name we have forgotten, but the wife was called Dot. I reminded Harry that the children were Ch and S. Harry told me that the Thornboroughs had moved from Peakville to Norfolk, a place they had grown to like after spending holidays there. Thanks to an acquaintance who also used to live close by, Harry had seen a recent photo of the family; Dot, who used to be slim, is now quite fat.
Next door to the Thornboroughs lived a little old lady who always had her curtains closed, and peeked round them at the world outside. She let her hedges grow tall and wild. In the 1960s the Old Man once helped her with some DIY – mending a leaking tap or suchlike. He commented to the Deceased Lady and myself that he was probably the only one of that old lady’s neighbours who had ever set foot in her house.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Mr & Mrs RW lived in the house now occupied by Mr & Mrs CJ and previously occupied by Mr & Mrs HJ. Mr RW was a cobbler, as Harry put it.
Harry moved in to his house in 1963 or 1964.

Filed under: People, Places, R.I.P.

Friday 7-1-11: Friday before the Monday

BLEKE — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:42:26 +0000

I drove to Peakville.

Filed under: R.I.P.

Thursday 6-1-11: not attending

BLEKE — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:32:39 +0000

Cousin Z will not be able to attend the Old Man’s funeral. It is too far for her to drive there and back home in one day, and her partner will be having some tests that day at the hospital – so he won’t be able to drive her.

Filed under: People, Places, R.I.P.

Three dogs (Little Legacy 25: Alexander Residence)

BLEKE — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:11:41 +0000

Heather Lucas’ recent posts about the death of her dog Betty reminded me of three dogs that our family has owned.

The first dog was Eddie, the dog that the Deceased Lady and her parents owned in the 1930s. He was a mongrel, and originally belonged to the family in the adjoining semi. The man of the house was “a nasty piece of work”, to quote the Deceased Lady, and he used to torment Eddie by hitting and prodding him with his walking-stick. Then one day the man told the Deceased Lady: “You can have Eddie for five shillings [25p].” She passed the message on to her father, and he agreed to buy the dog. Eddie’s temperament was always a bit fierce, no doubt owing to the mistreatment he had been the victim of.

Now for the dogs that the Old Man and I could remember. I shall let the Old Man describe these dogs in his own words:

“We bought Molly from the covered market that used to be next to Peakville Open Market, for £4 plus change. This may have been shortly after I got married, so probably in 1949 or 1950. I think we were just at the market looking round. She was sitting in a cage on her own, just a few months old, looking miserable, and my wife felt sorry for her so we bought her.
“She was a spaniel bitch, black with white flecks in her coat.
“When my wife used to say goodbye to me at the garden gate, with the dog on a lead, Molly used to screech and cry as though I was leaving for ever. When I was about to return home, Molly used to leave the sitting-room, lie down in the kitchen near the passageway that led to the back door, and whine.
“Molly died quite young, probably in 1955 or 1956. If I remember correctly, the vet diagnosed liver trouble.”

The second dog:

“We bought a young black spaniel from a house in Shepherd’s Avenue or Lane, in response to an advert in the Peakville Bugle. He cost under £5. The price was so low because when he was left on his own while his owners were at work, he used to tear up the curtains and create chaos in other ways. So I think his owners were glad to sell him.
“The first thing he did when we got home was pick up a piece of coke from the fireplace in his mouth. Fortunately, the fire was unlit.
“The dog’s name was Sam, but we soon started calling him Tam because he responded better to that name.
“He always knew when I was about to return home.
“Tam was born in June 1957 and died in the early months of 1971 – probably in February.”

“When we used to go to Eelby [a seaside town], or anywhere, in the car, either dog was always the first to the house door and the first into the car. They would wait outside the car for it to be unlocked. Both dogs were determined to be treated as a member of the family.”

Actually, my own memory of Tam travelling by car is rather different. What I remember is that he always used to howl when he was being taken anywhere in the car – perhaps because he had first arrived at our house by car, and so he thought going for a trip in the car meant we were getting rid of him!

http://www.aresidence.co.uk/2012/01/and-she-got-off-at-macclesfield-little.html

Filed under: Lifestyle, Money, People, Places

Tuesday 4-1-11: two cousins

BLEKE — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:31:10 +0000

My cousin F will not be able to attend the Old Man’s funeral. His sister Y and her husband O may be able to, if O has recovered from a chest infection.

Filed under: People, R.I.P.

Saturday 1-1-11: a neighbour, a departure, a cousin

BLEKE — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:29:16 +0000

All day, it seemed more like a Sunday than a Saturday.
I saw Mrs JG on the path outside her house, wished her happy New Year, and told her that the Old Man had died – this surprised and saddened her. She asked when the funeral would take place, and went back into the house to make a note of that information. Mrs JG told me that her mother was seriously ill with cancer; it sounded as though she would not live long.
After lunch, I drove back to Suburbia Somnolenta. At the junction where the sub-station stands, I was waiting for the traffic-lights to turn to green. I reflected that this was the first time I had ever left Peakville without seeing the Old Man.
The journey was less tiring than usual, as traffic was fairly light.
From Suburbia Somnolenta, I managed to contact cousin N by phone. She is on painkillers, and is suffering from osteoporosis. Her only relative in the Peakville area now is a cousin on her father’s side, who lives in Forest Glade.
Cousin N is due to turn 61 in February 2011.
I ought to devote more time to her – but without intruding.

Filed under: People, R.I.P.