Photographs Of My Father

Charlie and Emmie spent their whole married life living in the house in Farnham Common where my father grew up.

They had three children; my two brothers (Michael and Tony) and myself who came along many years after they thought their family was complete.

For the first years of their marriage, as was fairly common for young married couples at that time, they shared the house with my father's parents, Ellen and Jesse. Eventually, as their family grew, my Mum and Dad and my two brothers lived upstairs and my grandparents lived downstairs.

This photograph is of my father (who seems to be eating a sandwich) and my eldest brother Michael.

I'm not sure who the dog is, but I'm assuming it's one of my grandmother's dogs. She always had dogs and they were ALL called "Timmy". When one Timmy died, he was replaced with another Timmy!

All the "Timmy's" were buried in the garden, which made the lawn more than a little bumpy!

I seem to have inherited her love of dogs and have three of my own, (however, I do manage to be a little bit more imaginative with names!)

Oh yes, I was a Daddy's Girl alright!

My very earliest memory is of being aged around two, sitting on the floor of my parents kitchen with the song "Downtown" by Petula Clark playing on the radio and hearing the sound of my Dad's moped coming down the drive, meaning he was home from work. This meant he was mine for cuddles and stories!

I attribute my love of books to my Dad as he was an avid reader of everything from Dickens to true crime. I used to sit beside him while he read stories to me and he taught me to read at a very early age.

Due to his illness he got out of breath quickly and had to stop reading frequently. My Mum said I used to wait patiently when this happened and eventually say "Has you got your breaths back yet Daddy?" when I felt I'd waited long enough.

This picture is of my Dad and me at a family wedding when I was aged about three. Funnily enough, the church is the same one where I got married myself, twenty one years later!

It looks very cold and I don't look too happy do I? :)

A year later and my Mum had obviously got herself a camera that used coloured film!

This is me making sandcastles on the beach at Bournemouth.

My Dad is soaking up the rays in a deckchair, while my Mum's sister, my wonderful Aunt Nancy, looks very Pale and British :)

I love this picture - Dad and Aunt Nancy look so "overdressed" for a hot, sunny day at the beach....Dad has clearly gone to the beach wearing a SUIT!

As a concession to the weather, he's taken off his tie and rolled his shirt sleeves up a little bit, but he's still clutching his suit jacket on his lap and has got woolly socks and shiny shoes on!

Here they are again, Dad and Aunt Nancy looking incongruous, with my Uncle Ted (Aunt Nancy's husband) taking photographs in the background - he too seems to be terribly overdressed for a day out at the beach!

Poor Mum didn't ever seem to get a chance to "pose" for the camera :(

This holiday was the year before my Dad died. A big family group of us went to Sandbanks, near Poole in Dorset and we had the BEST holiday ever!

We didn't realise we were trendsetters back then, but in recent times, Sandbanks has become the haunt of the seriously Rich & Famous. Apparantly, Sandbanks now has "... by area, the fourth highest land value in the world" and is home to people with bank accounts bigger than I could imagine...but back in the day, it was just a seaside resort and ordinary families went on holidays there and had lots of fun.

My Mum said that Dad had the time of his life on this holiday...I'm glad that he had such a good time because it wasn't too much longer before there were no more sunny days...