Anniversaries

[vita]

Today in 1870 my grandmother Emma Jane Pearson was born in Dalston, East London.

She married William Hawke Headland & they settled in Holloway. Their only child, my

father, was born after almost twelve years of marriage.

I remember Emma Jane as an old lady in her Suffolk retirement cottage, enthralling me

with stories of the East End at the time of Jack the Ripper. She died in 1961 aged ninety

one.

Some years earlier she had given me a Victorian 'keeper' ring in the shape of a buckle

with a tiny diamond which I wore every day, until resting on the mantelpiece, it fell

into an open fire. I was hearbroken, as I had nothing else to remember her by.

[Merry]

But you do have her stories, vita. I hope you have written them down?!!

[vita]

Originally Posted by Merry

But you do have her stories, vita. I hope you have written them down?!!

It was more along the lines of 'Oooooh, it was awful!' (Cue Dot Cotton voice, if

you're familiar with EastEnders) except for the Ripper stories which were all

about how women were afraid to venture out. I used to encourage her to tell

me these, then be too scared to go to her outside loos at the bottom of the

garden. I did love that ring, though. Never quite forgiven my self over losing

it that way.

[Phoenix]

My grandparents married on this day in 1923. Despite the fact that both had lived in Woldingham, Surrey for over five years, both gave their addresses as their parents' - presumably so that the Hornes could advertise that their son was getting married, and my granny could marry in Letheringsett, Norfolk, in the bosom of her family.

Problems attached to marrying away from home. My grandfather was a keen (if impecunious) amateur photographer and promised to bring his camera. He forgot. I have to rely on the newspaper report to discover what the wedding was like. He did subsequently take a photo of granny in her wedding dress: golden brown with the droopy hem fashionable at the time, set against the Surrey hills, but this alas has not (to my knowledge) survived.
The vicar was similarly forgetful, and their entries are handwritten in the gro indexes.