A Wonderful Lady - Chapter 14 Mum and Dad arrive, and Our first car

Bullnose Morris (not the actual one!)

Mum and Dad come to live with us

For the first two years following Frances's birth I was no at all well and I used to put our things in the pram and go to my mother's at Central Park Road. My nerves were bad and I didn't like being on my own while Frank was at work. After a while Frank suggested we ask my Mum and Dad if they would like to come and live with us. My youngest sister had married and left home so they were on their own, but at that time they didn't want to leave their friends. However after a while my eldest sister , Ada, and her husband, Jim, decided they would leave East Ham and start buying a house in Barking or Ilford, asking Mum and Dad to go with them to help pay the mortgage; that is what they did, but they often used to come and stay with us. Then, when Frances was about 4 years old and I was very much better, having found a lovely friend, Mrs Gibbons, Mum and Dad said that, if the offer was still open for them to come and live with us, they would like to take it up, which they did and of course we were very pleased to see them. Obviously we needed more accommodation and so we got an estimate for an extension. It was around £180, but the insurance company would not lend us the money. We didn't have £180 of course, in fact we didn't even have a bank account, so we just managed.

Car Owners

It was about this time that Frank's sister Lena and her family came home on leave from Malta. Ben, Lena's husband, bought a Bull-nosed Morris as this was cheaper than shipping his own car over for the duration of his leave.(At the top is an example of a Bullnose Morris)
When they were due to return to Malta, Ben offered the car to Frank for £15. We hadn't got £15 and Frank couldn't drive anyway. However Father and Mother Fuller were keen for Frank to have it and lent us the £15. Ben took Frank out a few time at daybreak and all was well. We became the proud owners of what would now be regarded as a vintage car. I can't remember how long we had it. I know we went to Little Holland in it, visiting relatives. Those were happy days before the Second World War.
Soon after we moved to Laindon a school was built nearby and when we had Frances we thought that would be very convenient. However, new rules were made and, when she reached school age, the school that were told she had to attend was a good mile away; she went once and didn't want to go again. She didn't like the dinner and said the rice pudding had to be cut in slices! We arranged to send her to a private school, but she never started there as we were just about to move to Dover. When we arrived in River she was able to attend the village school there