I emailed my lovely Auntie Jean in France, asking about family, memories, personality and anything else she can remember about the Wards;
"hello, nice to get your mail,
will crank the ole memory into action re family stuff, did you meet uncle Harold?
he and Dad got on very well, in fact the two couples did, I remember them at the caravan laughing till they wept! do you just want Wardie info, or anything about Mum's side?
and do you wnt stuff that I remember from childhood...say, like when we went for a picnic and the cows which had been grazing at the bottom of the field came up and walked across the whole lot?
Louisa, grandma Ward to me (as distinct from grandma Holmes) I don't really remember very much directly, she came to live with us for her last years, when she grew too frail to live alone the brothers planned for her to stay 6 months at a time with 3 of them, 4th, Alf being in America, I think, Peggy's father anyway.
After a bit Cecil and his wife decided they couldn't or wouldn't cope, I think they made her feel uncomfortable, there must have been quite a fuss because Cecil and family were not on speaking terms with the others after that, so it went to 6 months each with Harold and Vi and Mum and Dad. Vi + Harold were very fond of her, when Vi lost her own Mother whilst quite young Vi would have only been 15 or 16 or so, Grandma said she was to think of her as her mother.
Anyway she stayed with us permanently in the end, I think because the disruption became too much, and Dad as her youngest son had lived with her in the house in Gertrude road till she got too frail, they were used to each others ways, she was going a bit senile in the end, I think, and had to go into a nursing home for the last weeks of her life. It was getting too much for Mum to cope with her full time with 3 children 2 still toddlers, Dad out at work every day. A bed was put up for her in John and Roberts 'nursery' bedroom, so it was a bit cramped, + things like Mum would sometimes say that they had saved up for some nice stuff, like the tea/dinner set ( a few bits left in Rob's kitchen dresser, pale green and gold bands on a cream china body, very nice!) and Grandma had broken most of it "helping" to wash up.
She was very kind, not at all fierce as in the picture, life had been quite hard for her, orphaned I think, glad to have married for some comfort and stability, I never knew Grandpa Ward, he died well before I was born, that left her widowed rather early.
Uncle Harold always spoke highly of her, lovingly, as a wonderful Mother, compassionate and understanding, very generous - with time and aid, so did Dad come to that!
Dad had an impish sense of humour and I remember laughter a lot.
They said that I am a bit like her and look like her, particularly when I had long hair done up in a chignon, can't quite see it myself but haven't thought to look now that I am older!
well there's a start, I'd better write some of it longhand jotting things down as I think of them, I'll continue later, starvation setting in right now............loads of love J "