Family time

Sunday 16 April – today was a day of family, stories, memories and nostalgia. Denise and I drove up to the Star Pub in Leatherhead, Surrey,  which has special memories for me from my days at working with Mary Quant Cosmetics, the offices of which used to be located just a few miles away.  Julie drove down from Manuden and met us there along with one of my cousin’s Lester, and his wife Donna and son Joe.  Wouldn’t be a Sunday pub lunch in England without the full English roast – mine was roast beef, complete with plenty of roast potatoes and vegetables, topped with a Yorkshire pudding and lashings of gravy!  It was the real deal. 

Denise, Julie and myself then drove up to the Church of St Nicholas in Thames Ditton where the ashes of our lovely Dad, who passed away 50 years ago this year, have been laid to rest.  It was a special time, the three of us visiting the Garden of Remembrance together, which I don’t recall we have ever done since his passing which was the beginning of our family break up, with me moving to Geneva and my Mum and sisters to Spain.  It was very peaceful wandering around the gardens.  Thames Ditton is a lovely little village in Surrey and in 1973 was the perfect place for Dad to rest, being near our home at the time, although somewhat bittersweet now as none of his immediate family live anywhere near him anymore.

We followed this with a quick drive by of my old secondary school, Holy Cross Convent. I was pleased to see the old annexe which housed my sixth form common room (and a lot of shenanigans) was still standing, and a look at two of the three houses from my childhood.  Not a lot had changed in them, I guess mainly because people don’t buy houses and knock them down and reinvent them as much as we do in New Zealand and of course they are all built of brick so are all pretty solid to start with.

Afternoon tea was had with some other relatives before we made our way in the evening sunshine, back to Eastbourne.