Jill’s Tales

I can still go back to a childhood day when I would open our back door and my Mother would say “Oh there you are love, how was school, come tell me all about it and sit on that stool” She was my guardian, my Mum was my friend, sticking by me until her bitter end.. she fretted about my driving, yes she worried alot.. though I told her I was okay, my Mum cared for her lot.. with a pin inbetween her lips as she sat at her old brown machine, sewing those stitches with thread that was green.. My Mum had an old ‘Singer’ sewing machine and I as reminisce my childhood days of my dear Mother, this image is seen.. What a seamstress she was top of her generation, making all our fine clothes from within her fabrication.. Oh how I miss the crackle of her cosy coalfire, as she stood stoking it with a  poker in her hand. yellow flames would rise higher.. I so miss her singing as she stood washing her dishes, when my Dad would waltz in from his work carrying wrapped up bundles of fishes...If I wokeup feeling unwell my Mum would say “ Lie in your bed Jill, you can stay home today” and she would look all concerned and feel my warm brow, Mum couldn’t help worrying, that was her way somehow..I can still hear her accent when her Liverpool sisters came to stay, she would go back to Liverpudlian, her Northumbrian would go away.. Ah my good old Mam, she was always in her house, pouring cups of tea for her family and spouse..A fixture of her kitchen, the hub of her house, my Mam was an angel looking after her spouse...
After Dad had his massive stroke he was never the same, my Mam lost her fisherman, that was such a shame..but seventeen years later she would care for his needs, running around after him, helping him with his feeds.. at the end of his days my Dad went in a home, and this still makes me sad as I write down this poem..but we all took it in turns to visit him there to tell him we loved him, and shower him with care.. So until my sister Chris got married she lived with my Mother, they would be companions and good company for one another..Chris and Ivan had David, their son, so when I went with my girls they all had great fun..mind you our Chris had her work but she would come home every night, keeping an eye on my Mother, making sure she was alright.. then it was Chris who was there when my Mam was unwell, when she nursed her with love, she did this so well.. My eldest sister Linda and her husband Alan was only walking distance away and Linda would visit with her two daughters, Lorraine and Lindsay her Mother everyday.. Alas Mam had a slight stroke and she ended up in a home, gone were those days when her happiness would roam.. the second stoke left her not like my Mam, confused and cantankerous, where she didn’t give a dam.. then in her old age we all stood around her bed, and hoped as she passed over, Dad would be amidst her head...
Mary my Mother-in-law was the strongest woman I ever knew but her heart was full of compassion and kindness too..after her eldest son Michael died out of blue she would miss him so much, what was she going to do ?.yet she carried on with fortitude and strength though sickness and suffering was at her arms length.. Then Jacob died so she was left all alone, two of her close companions had passed on and gone.. So she bought another house betwixt our little town where Robert and I always went down.. Mary loved my three daughters, we were all her little world, as her health would suffer her spirit didn’t unfurled.. She was diabetic for years, long before it was diagnosed, and Oh how she would suffer.. What problems that posed..One cold October Mary had a very sore foot, though Surgeons tried to save it, her curculation was caput.. I recall one October afternoon I was sat at Mary’s hospital bed, with wonders and thoughts dancing in my head.. Mary had had an operation to try and help her limb, she was sat up with her covers raised up over her legs and she said to me in a whim.. “Eeh can you itch my sore heel, so I put my hand under her sheet.. but her leg wasn’t there, how was she gonna feel ? Well apparently one’s brain can fool one’s mind, it still thought that Mary’s limb was there, even though it was not there to find.. Mary came back home and she got an artificial leg, yet I never heard her grumble, as her health was deterioting and her life took a tumble..the very next October Mary had been in alot of pain, with her other toe and heel, the same thing was happening yet again.. So she lost both limbs but still she never complained, as her organs were failing and her pains waxed and waned.. Mary bought herself a large mobility car.. this woman had guts, she would drive it down to our bungalow with no if’s or buts.. Yet her heart was failing and failing so fast, and after countless coronary attacks..poor Mary’s suffering was gone at last !!!
Robert’s aunt Chris passed on at the grand old age of ninety nine, only months before her reaching the grand centenarian.. Now this lady and by golly gosh.. Christina Dixon was a lady so she naturally spoke posh.. So Aunt Chris and I often met up to play our games of ‘Srabble’ whilst we sipped from a cup..Right from day one her and I bonded together, tho she was well spoken unlike myself, we were like two birds of a feather.. Aunt Chris was never married, I guess she liked her own company and too long she had tarried..She lived for many years in her house with a garden plot, selling her wares and was happy with her lot.. Chris drove her little green car to visit us all often, it wasn’t that far.. I recall one teeming wet day Robert and I visited her house and the running river was dismay.. the brown water was almost flooding her door, so Robert and I set to, shifting all her worldly goods out of harm’s way from her floor..curtains were tied up and we put the television in her bath, haha her stuff would survive well in a flood’s aftermath..Though luckily the raging river subsided, Robert and I just happened to be there at the same time when our visit coincided.. But all through my wedded bliss she would show such keen interest in all of her great nephews and neices and this is probably one of the reasons why I loved this woman to pieces.. In her seventies she moved to another quiet abode in her little town, right next to a garden center and where the river rolled down.. Well I would still visit her come what may and we would have a laugh playing Scrabble allday.. In the twighlight of her years Chris had a nasty fall and to be perfectly honest, I don’t think she ever recovered from it at all.. so relunctantly she moved to Queen’s house, into private care and she had her independence with her own room in there.. Of course I would drive to Kelso for the day and visit Aunt Chris, we would chatter away.. I reminsce not that long ago telling her “Aunt Chris I am going to really miss our time together you know” and she looked at me with teardrops in her eyes and said” Yes Jill I shall miss you too on my demise” but she knew her time on earth was done, though I cried and I cried when Aunt Chris was gone...