Mum

 My Mum would have been 100 today but she died in 1999 a few months before her 73rd birthday..

 She was the second oldest in a family of 6 children although her youngest brother died very young from leukemia . Her Dad worked in dusty conditions and smoked untipped cigarettes and was often ill. Their was no spare cash. I know Mum said that all three girls passed the 11 Plus to go to Grammar School and uniform was a struggle.

She was so beautiful  - this photo has no date but she looks to be 14 ish?

She left school  and went to work at ICI in Stowmarket.(They made paint and other chemicals) She worked as a chemist testing paints and colours. Met my dad there - he was a engineer machinist.

There's a date on the back of this one - June 12th 1949

1951

We never had one of those close Mum/Daughter relationships. I think she was forever changed by the death of my real Dad in 1954 just before I was born, when they had only been married for 3 years.

1955

She married his older brother in 1958. She said she knew he would look after us - I don't think they were ever incredibly happy. He worked 5½ days a week in his builder business and I think my Mum was bored. She didn't drive and didn't really have an outlet for her intelligence.

In the 1970's she developed Rheumatoid Arthritis in all her joints, back then there wasn't any good treatment and it gradually got worse. I think she gave up wanting to move as it was so painful and that meant her muscles all gave up too. By the time our eldest daughter was born in 1980 she already found it too difficult and painful to have a baby on her lap - a huge regret. 

She also had breast cancer but after a mastectomy she wouldn't have any more treatment and hated any fuss being made. She never even mentioned she'd had cancer and always reckoned there were people worse off than she was.

After  hip replacements and then frequent infections in the wounds, so they never healed, she eventually had both hip joints removed and of course was then stuck in a chair, using a hoist to move- she Hated being reliant on Dad to help her but carers were forever changing - and never knew how  to operate the hoist so she was stuck being reliant.

It was years after she died and Dad was in hospital that they discovered he was a carrier of  MRSA so had possibly been reinfecting Mum for years. So sad.

She would have hated anyone to see this photo - Sorry Mum. The only way the children remember  her was sat in her chair in the living room. That's sad too. This photo from 1995 ish. 

Thank goodness treatment for both Rheumatoid Arthritis and Breast Cancer have improved since then.