Mother's Day

This morning, my Mum put some flowers in front of this photo of her mother, as her birthday was on March 21st.This was taken for the local paper in 1980, on the occasion of my grandparents' golden wedding anniversary. On that occasion, Grandma was asked the secret of a happy marriage, and she replied "Give and Take". Grandma was 32 when she married. They were second cousins but had only met a few times before Grandad proposed. She was a children's nurse, a country girl with little education but a big heart. They lived a modest life, with no car or foreign holidays. Grandad loved his garden and Grandma loved her family, doting on three daughters and eight grandchildren. She loved to cook and never had a washing machine, believing that they didn't do the job properly. I loved going to stay with them in their house in North London. My Grandad died a few months after this photo was taken, but Grandma lived on until a few months short of her 104th birthday.