There must have been ructions in Wesley Grove when that Catholic sprig of the black Irish, Tommy Nolan came a courting. I think old Gran did her utmost to break up the romance, even pelting Pa with smelly fish-heads at the Pier Head, must have caused a hell of a laughter for all the other taxi drivers, when you think about it.
The Pier Head, incidentally, was where it all began, Mum was working in a shipping office, the Bibby Line, she came trotting across the Pier Head one morning, passing the taxi rank, when her string of beads broke and scattered. The gallant Tommy Nolan sprang down from his taxi to help picking the beads up, just think Min, none of us might be here now if those beads hadn't broken.....
It developed from there, from all accounts the old man was pretty open-handed with his lolly, he bought Mum huge boxes of chocs and once, even took her for an aeroplane flight at Southport. Pretty impressive stuff in 1923/4.
I suppose the old Gran's outrage was understandable in a way.
She'd
been brought up in an Irish Protestant family in Everton, Her mother
was named Margaret Twist before she married Joseph Clancy, she was a
tailoress and he was a master builder, then the mother died at 36 and
Alice went into service working in hotels, the thing was they were
staunch Protestants.
I think Alice may also have been miffed because one of the officers off the Bibby Line ships had been paying court to Muv. He was a batchelor by the name of Billy Warren, years older than Muv but had a posh house and was doing everything in the right order, apparently he'd already asked permish from the Perkin parents, was welcomed with open arms and he and Muv were to get engaged on his next home leave. Too late, too late, the bird had flown.
Joseph Clancy, by the way, had those bright blue eyes which
mother
had inherited, odd when you think that both her parents and sister had
brown eyes, strange things these genes.
There was your lovely Mum with that fantastic red hair, if you could have seen it when she was seventeen. Auntie Jacks was a bright red but a lighter shade than your Mums. I first met her when your Dad was in the army. I received instructions through the post, I was to cycle to Gateacre on the Sunday to meet this girl he'd fallen for. He said nothing about a sister and I was stunned when I met the two of them with this gorgeous flaming red hair. I had tea with them at their Grandma's cottage in Wood Lane and the three of us went for a walk afterwards. That was when we met the flasher, he leapt from behind a bush, held his raincoat open and shouted "Look at this" Your mum and I flung our arms around each other and yelled in unison. Auntie Jack was outraged and gave chase shouting "You dirty bugger" he had enough sense to run away.
That was my introduction to the Winstanley sisters.I have never forgotten that awful time when your sister Jane died. She was a beautiful baby and was starting to smile and take notice. I don't really know whether I believe in presentiments or portents but an odd thing happened to me a week before the baby died. You Dad was still in the army, he had been home on weekend leave, he and your Mum had spent most of the weekend in Gateacre but he'd to catch a train on Sunday evening from Liverpool. He brought your Mum and baby Jane to Deane Rd Sunday afternoon, the weather wasn't brilliant and it was getting late when he left. My mum suggested that it might be better for your Mum to stay the night and travel back to Gateacre next morning.
My mum made up the bed-settee in the front sitting room and told me to sleep in there too, to keep your mum company. There was a large bay window in the room and the streetlights shone through so the room wasn't pitch black, there was also a clock on the mantelpiece. We went to bed about 11pm. I was nearest to the fireplace, your mum in the middle, with the baby on her right. We must have been yakitty-yaking for quite a while until we drifted off to sleep. I awakened abruptly, hearing my name being called really urgently, Vera, I shot up into a sitting position absolutely convinced that it was your mums voice calling me. I learned over and asked "What do you want Sis?" There was no answer, there couldn't be because your Mum was fast asleep. I glanced at the clock, it was exactly one o'clock. Seven days later at one o'clock, the baby died whilst in bed with your mum and Aunty Jack. Apparently their Gran came in to waken Auntie Jack at 7am and found Jane dead but at the postmortem they said she'd died about 1am. It was all so dreadfully sad, your mum and dad were so young and they'd worshipped that baby.