Chapters
- Was your llife ever in danger?
- When did you first fall in love?
- Do you believe in fate?
- Where are your parents/grandparents from? Do they speak any other languages?
- How has being a parent changed you?
- If you could give your younger self advice, what would it be?
- What was the most profound spiritual moment of your life?
- What country that you’ve travelled to has surprised you the most?
- Preface
- January
- What did you want to be growing up?
- What’s the first major news story or political event you remember living through as a child?
- May
- What do you remember about your family home?
- What are your memories of primary school?
- June
- Were your parents strict?
- Have you taken part in any demonstrations?
- July
- Remember your first car?
- Why Bee?
- Have you lived through any wars?
- August
- What are your memories of university/college?
- September
- Have you met any famous people?
- October
- Etc …
- November
- What’s the most important piece of advice anyone gave you and why?
- December
- Describe your father and write one favourite memory about him.
- Conclusion
- February
- Describe your mother and write about one favourite memory with her.
- March
- Did you have any serious accidents as a child?
- What was/is your relationship with your siblings? Has this changed?
- April
A Life Well Lived
February
Me, David and baby Michael
This is a cruel month, my nephew Dave was born on the 23rd in 1947, a really cold year. I had just turned four and had been given a most important job, I had to stand by the window and watch out for a lady on a bicycle. I stood and I watched; it was freezing and the snow was almost as tall as me, so I kept watching. I can remember folding the green chenille curtains around my hand to keep warm. The lady, Nurse Rust, did arrive, pushing her bicycle through the snow and went straight upstairs, later taking me upstairs because I could hear a baa lamb calling and wanted to see. It was just a baby.
Mum and her 3
This baby, my nephew was great, we were like brother and sister, played together as children, colluded as teenagers and later as young adults, flat shared in London. We were good friend throughout our lives until David’s death during Covid.
David in old age
Rebecca on her wedding day
2002 and I was busy: Rebecca and Frazer had charged me with arranging a wedding for them They wanted a wedding in the West Country, in the dark, near water … with many to-ing and frow- ing from Rebecca it was all going well until the Registrar phoned to he’d checked the light levels and, on that day (three days to go) at the last possible time a wedding would be legal, it was too dark to proceed. I could go ahead with all lights blazing, or I should arrange some other form of lighting … I sourced a giant candelabra for hire, picked it up, went to Bath to check the light level; all okay then, on my way to Corsham for a final dress fitting, a Ford Transit van, loaded with scrap metal, ran into the back of me. I had whiplash, two broken toes and a written off car! Awful. I had worked SO hard to provide the perfect wedding for Rebecca and Frazer to be spoiled by some oik from Leicester!
However, Rebecca arrived from London, and, thanks to some very kind people, the day was saved. Interestingly, one of the quests confided in me at the reception that he “ couldn’t see a bloody thing” so he’d turned the lights on!
Many years later my dear, dear Suresh died on the 19th of this month.