My sisters cleared Mum’s room in Woodpeckers today and will take her favourite clothes to the undertakers. I had removed the one object I would like yesterday. This, bearing my name on the back in our mother’s block capitals, was a pastel portrait I produced for her on the first anniversary of Dad’s death, 34Continue reading “The Next Generation”
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“I Have Had Enough”
My mother died peacefully early this morning. Her last words to my sister Elizabeth last night were “I have had enough”. Most of us have had opportunities in the last couple of days to say goodbye. I have spent the day with Elizabeth at Woodpeckers and at Diamond Undertakers in Lymington; and making a numberContinue reading ““I Have Had Enough””
“Hello Barbara”
Mum perked up yesterday afternoon. When Elizabeth and Jacqueline arrived she was sitting up in bed, drinking from her own cup. She stayed awake for two hours; conversed lucidly; and consumed a little liquid nourishment, antibiotics, and water. Staff were concerned about her breathing overnight and she is to be given morphine to make herContinue reading ““Hello Barbara””
A Knight’s Tale (33: Cricket In The Street)
Earlier I mentioned playing in the street in 1947. This continued well into the ’50s. In those early years all the children played in the street. The presence of a car in this right-angled road was a very rare occurence. It was therefore perfectly safe, even to play ball games, which are now banned inContinue reading “A Knight’s Tale (33: Cricket In The Street)”
A Couple Of Sips
Today I learned what it feels like to help to drink from a two handled plastic cup a mother who probably aided me in the same way well nigh 80 years ago. It is almost a month since Mum last visited our home. Until today I had not seen her since. For some days furtherContinue reading “A Couple Of Sips”
Stamping Ground
We began the day by shopping at Ferndene Farm Shop for three more bags of compost, vegetables, and begonias. This was quite a quick operation, after which we drove into the forest. At the top of Holmsley Passage another wrecked vehicle blocked the side-lane to a house. This was upside down and looked as ifContinue reading “Stamping Ground”
Burnt Out
This morning I scanned three more of Charles Keeping’s excellent illustrations to ‘Our Mutual Friend’. ‘Conveniently elevated above the level of the living, were the dead’ ‘Tippins the divine’ The artist’s inspired evocation of Dickens’s ‘The whole metropolis was a heap of vapour charged with muffled sound of wheels’ prompted me to post https://derrickjknight.com/2021/09/11/a-knights-tale-32-the-great-smog/ OnContinue reading “Burnt Out”
A Knight’s Tale (32: The Great Smog)
Today we are battling even greater global problems with air pollution than that of the smog Chris and I experienced in 1952. Smog is a term coined by compacting elided versions of ‘smoke’ and ‘fog’. One nickname for London is ‘The Smoke. The capital in those days was frequently visited by fog exacerbated by smoke fromContinue reading “A Knight’s Tale (32: The Great Smog)”
We Still Have Some Colour
This morning I posted https://derrickjknight.com/2021/09/10/a-knights-tale-31-mugging-more/ When shopping at Lidl yesterday Jackie discovered quite a number of empty shelves. In the central aisles she did find some flat-pack ones that she would like for the garden. She found them so easy to assemble and returned for more today. She bought another four packs. There are nowContinue reading “We Still Have Some Colour”
A Knight’s Tale (31: Mugging & More)
One day when still in primary school I managed to get lost on Wimbledon Common with my friend Tom McGuinness. We were forbidden to do this trip on our own. Because we couldn’t find our way home, I did not return until 9 p.m., by which time my parents had involved the police in aContinue reading “A Knight’s Tale (31: Mugging & More)”
