Born 14th March, 1944
My sister was also a wartime baby, and like my brother Tony, I have no memories of her around the house when I was a child. The first thing I can bring to mind is a tiny flat in Mill Road, where she set up home with her husband Doug, and which had also been the first home for Tony and Karen.
I have a much clearer memory of the next home Linda and Doug moved to, which was a large white bungalow on the corner of Gower Road. The house was empty and noisy when we first explored, and seemed almost gothic, with dark wooden floors and leaded windows. The garden around the house was sunken, and to a young child with an imagination, the house seemed like an old castle surrounded by a moat. They didn’t stay there long, and I fancy I heard rumours that it was haunted, and Linda felt uneasy there. They soon got a council house in Willowside Way, just around the corner from Tony and Karen, and walking distance from us in Orchard Way.
The Christmas routine is also central to my memories of Willowside Way. Growing up, on Christmas Day we were at home with Mum and Dad, all twelve of us (thirteen, if Nigel had a serious girlfriend). Boxing Day was at Tony and Karen’s, and then we were at Linda and Doug’s on the first Sunday after Boxing Day. The only regular exception to this tradition was Christmas Day afternoon, when Linda and Doug took themselves, and David and Sue (another niece and nephew for this young uncle) to visit Doug’s parents for tea.
In marrying Doug, Linda had become part of a large, well-established Royston family, the Gypps. Doug had a lot of brothers and sisters, who all had kids, and he had even more cousins. In fact, my Mum’s family, the King’s, and the Gypps were two of the most prevalent family groups in our town. Mum used to constantly talk to me of cousins I didn’t know of, and I think the same thing happens on Doug’s side – except they seem to have a better handle on who is related to who – and how.
When Linda was young, she went to Letchworth Grammar School – at a time when you had to pass an exam to get in. She was undoubtedly smart, but I guess times were hard and further education wasn’t cheap. I remember conversations at Christmas when she would challenge Dad, particularly on politics. On the other hand, Linda and Doug seemed to settle for a smaller world – they would often return to the same locations for holidays – Aunt Nellie’s caravan at St Osyth was a regular spot – and they are still in that same house in Willowside Way today.
Today, my sister is in poor health, and COVID has hit her and Doug very hard – not so much the disease itself, but the restrictions around it. They have both been effectively quarantined since the epidemic began, and very rarely leave the house. But whenever I speak to her on the phone, her voice still has the bright, sing-song quality I remember, no matter how heavy life’s burden is for her. Just like our Mum and Dad, family is a treasure to her, and in a very real way, a lifeline.
Love ya, Sis.
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