100th Birthday in Heaven :)

My mother Barbara would have been 100 years old today, February 17th, though I doubt she would have wanted a telegram from Charles and Camilla - Princess Anne, maybe!  Mum died in 2019 when she was 93, after having suffered from Alzheimer's for 10 years.

I was taking a look at what London was like when she was born there in 1926, the year of the General Strike, and picked out three (very short) videos.  I can't add videos to this blog at the moment, but these links take you to YouTube.

London 1926 1.51 mins long

London Bridge 1926

General Strike 1926

Photos of London life in 1926, HERE

Mum in the middle, about 1941 :)

In 1926, when she would have taken Mum out in her pram, this is what my grandmother might have paid for her shopping.  Back then, of course, the currency was pounds, shillings and pence, but I've converted it into decimal currency for ease of comparison:

A loaf of bread: 4p

A pound of butter: 8p

Half a pound of cheese: 4p

Eight Sausages: 6p

Six eggs: 5p

Five pounds of potatoes: 3p

A leg of lamb: 30p

A whole chicken: 25p

The large family home Mum, her parents, brothers and sisters grew up in, in West London, probably cost her father around £1,000.

On the right, aged 8

With regard to this time in my mother's life, I came across an amazing coincidence via a Twitter friend who lives in Massachusetts - it's HERE if you're interested.  It's short, fear not!

I have to just mention this, while I'm on the subject of familial coincidences - during WWII, Mum's brother Geoff was in the Navy, while her brother Ken was in the Army.  They never knew where in the world each other was from one month to the next (and indeed the world was a much larger place in those days), but one day down a little street in India, Uncle Geoff literally turned a corner and bumped into his brother.  Of all the streets...  below, from one of Mum's many photo albums.

This was taken in about 1951, in Beccles, Suffolk, where Mum met our dearly beloved father.  I love how elegantly people dressed in the 50s.  I remember Mum wearing white gloves in the summer, particularly to church.  I also remember her saying, some decades later, 'Why doesn't anyone dress properly anymore?' 😄

This snap by my sister Julia; it's just so like her.

Happy birthday in heaven, Mummy :) 

🙏