A Wonderful Lady - Postscript

When it became impractical for Evelyn , or as she will always be remembered by me , Auntie Eva, to remain at Beauxfield in Whitfield she moved to the Allendale Residential Home. Evelyn's birthday parties there became a regular event and the photo below shows some of the friends and relations who gathered on her 100th birthday

The event was covered by the local newspaper as shown in the picture below, and beneath I have quoted the entire article.

"One Whitfield woman celebrated in style last week as she received her greeting from the Queen at her 100th birthday party. Evelyn Fuller was surrounded by her family and friends who travelled from all over the country for the special occasion on Tuesday October 5.
The special card came in the morning and Evelyn's daughter Mary Gardner knew it would be a big moment. Mrs Gardner said "My mother and I have been discussing it for years, I used to joke with her about how she was aiming for the Queen's greetings but she always used to say she wasn't, and now they are finally here." Mrs Fuller lives in Allendale Residential Home and on the big day 40 people arrived to enjoy the party and she received over 100 cards from well wishers.
Now it's back to life as normal for Mrs Fuller who is dedicated to knitting blankets for charity, her daughter said,"She likes to keep active so she knits patchwork squares, it takes 96 squares to make one blanket and she's already made 11 of them, there's no stopping her."


Evelyn was always happy at Allendale and was lovingly cared for by the marvellous staff there.
As I said the birthday get-togethers became a regular event. We gathered again a year later for Evelyn's 101st, and then the following year for her 102nd. That was the final "big do" and for her 103rd and 1o4th quieter celebrations took place. We gathered again on the 3rd August 2009 for a loving farewell, but I think the tradition of getting together to remember Evelyn will continue for many years to come. We will particularly remember Evelyn for her kindness and her sense of humour. Below is a video taken at Evelyn's 102nd birthday party which will also be a fitting reminder of Evelyn Fuller, A Wonderful Lady!

A Wonderful Lady - Chapter 19 After the War

We lived in River until 1979. Those years were, for the most part, very happy years. Frances completed her education at Dover Grammar School for girls and joined the Civil Service. Mary attended River School, Folkestone Technical School for Girls and also joined the Civil Service.

Nephew Brian and Mary in the back garden at Lower Rd River

Two stories about Mary, whilst she was at River School, come to mind. Mary came in from school one day, when she was about 6 years old, and asked the meaning of the word "foul". I explained it had two meanings depending upon the spelling; foul being dirty and fowl being a chicken. " Well, what is a fiend then?", asked Mary. "That's a devil", I answered. "Hm" says Mary, "Dirty Devil!". Of course, the second verse of the hymn "Who would true valour see" begins "Hobgoblin nor foul fiend!"At one time the headmaster of River School, Mr Strand, had evidently been telling the children a little about what happened when people died, how the soul left the body and went to heaven, which he must have described in some detail. On this particular day my mother was still with us and was having one of her off days. Mary came in from school, saw Nan with her head in her hands and went over to her and said, "You don't feel very well do you Nan?". "No I don't dear", was the reply. Whereupon Mary said, " Never mind you'll soon be dead and then you'll go to a lovely place, where there are birds and flowers and lovely sunshine and you'll be very happy!" Poor Mum didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Music

Music continued to enrich our lives. Frank and I played in the Minerva Orchestra for some years and I accompanied the Methodist Ladies and River WI choirs, taking part in many concerts in the Dover area. We attended River Methodist Chapel where we made many good friends. Frances later became organist at Wesley Methodist Church and played there for over 20 years.

Retirement

My mother lived with us until she died in 1958 and Frank's mother also spent some weeks with us each year until she died. Frank retired from the Immigration Service in 1962 and we enjoyed 17 years of happy retirement together. During this time we continued to have frequent visits from our numerous relations, especially during the summer, and had lots of happy times. We also spent some time exploring England and Scotland as well as visiting family members. Frank took up a long dreamed of hobby and proved his skill with the artist's paintbrush, producing many beautiful pictures both in oils and water colours - clearly a gift passed on by his father.

Family Tragedies

By 1978 Frances and Mary both had their own homes and Frank and I were finding our large house and garden more than we could cope with. After celebrating our Golden Wedding in September 1978, we decided to move and in early 1979 settled on a bungalow in Whitfield with a moving date fixed for 13th April. Devastatingly Frank became very ill in March that year and passed away on14th April. This was an awful time. Frances had also been suffering from a mystery illness which we alter discovered was multiple sclerosis. I made the best of my years at Whitfield, but of course I was without Frank and that was hard to bear. Fortunately, I had a lot of family visitors and a great many faithful friends to help me through. Frances and Mary both lived within walking distance in Whitfield and were very supportive. After battling with the horrors of MS for over 20 years, Frances died in January 2000; those years of progressive suffering affected us all very deeply.

Now , her I am nearly 100 years old! What memories I have and what experience of the kindness of family and friends. Thank God for all of them.

A Wonderful Lady - Chapter 18 Bannockbrae and Back to River

Frances holding MaryBannockbrae



Eventually, Mrs Best decided she would sell the house and go and live with her sister in Newquay, but said that her sister-in-law, Miss Best would be willing t let us have several rooms in her house. This was a much larger place called Bannockbrae. Miss Best was of Irish extraction, I think, and was Geography Mistress at Port Talbot Secondary School. We had three bedrooms, a kitchen, breakfast room, sitting room and bathroom. Grandma Fuller was with us then too, and she and my mum shared a double room. Miss Best had a piano in her sitting room and I was given permission to use it whenever I liked, so that I was able to continue giving Frances her music lessons. There was a lovely entrance hall with a mosaic floor, a grandfather clock, and a beautiful mahogany table. The staircase was wide and carpeted in dark red, blue and green Axminster. There were some fine triangular stair-rods made of brass, which Mum and I took out and cleaned. When Miss Best came home from school she always came down to our room to say hello, but on one occasion she didn't come, so I opened our door and there she was, standing just inside the front door with her arms folded. As I approached her she said," I was just thinking how lovely that looks with the brass rods shining". We were very pleased.



The one drawback to the house was that it was over-run by mice, which came from the house next door where a very elderly couple lived. I don't think they were aware of them. I killed one on the cooker with a poker. In the evening they would run across the hearth rug. One evening I said," I cannot stand any more. I am going to bed", and as I went up the stairs two mice ran down. We used to leave our bedroom door ajar by putting a shoe down, just in case Frances or Mum called and these mice used to leap over the shoe squeaking. I think we got rid of them eventually by blocking up the holes where they came through under the stairs.



Frank learned Spanish whilst we were living in Port Talbot. Emilio Prada was a Spaniard with an evening class in the town, but used to come to us from time to time, have a meal and give Frank a lesson. When asked if he would like more food he would lift his hands and say," I am plenty, I am plenty..."



Richard Burton



Richard Burton attended Miss Best's school and she was very keen for us to go to one of the school productions. Frank wasn't very keen on school dramatics, but thought we had better go to please her. Well, we would not have missed it for the world. She asked what we thought of it and Frank said he would have taken them all for three year drama students; they were all outstanding. Richard was superb, of course, as Professor Higgins in Pygmalion. Richard's name was Jenkins then. P.H Burton, the drama teacher, gave him his professional name and more or less brought him up.



Audrey the actress



Audrey could have done well at drama school, although I have heard Doreen say that Audrey was an excellent secretary and for one cousin to say that of another is praise indeed. Doreen was good herself I'm sure. Audrey loved staging plays. She and her mum and dad came to us for a short while when we were living in Miss Best's house in Port Talbot. Our bedroom had a bay window recess in it and , with blackout curtains drawn across the the recess, it made an ideal stage. The audience sat on the edge of the bed in great discomfort. As the curtains did not reach to the ground, Jim (Audrey's dad) , being Jim, had to have a little peep underneath occasionally, or poke his foot under, for which he was duly reprimanded. I cannot remember what the play was about except that there must have been royalty in it as one piece I remember was :



Court Official: Will your Majesty see the Chamberlain now?

Queen Audrey: No my Majesty will not!



I think the audience fell off the bed laughing; it was such a definite and dignified answer.



Back to River



Seven weeks before we came back to River in November 1944 Mary, our Welsh Rarebit, was born. I went into a really marvelous nursing home in Porthcawl called St Mary's. She was a very good baby and we hardly knew she was there. Dr Marshall came over to see me several times and when I said I felt well enough to go home he said, "Oh, don't go yet Mrs Fuller. Whilst you are here I can bring my family over, leave them on the beach, come and visit you, and claim the petrol allowance!" We started off on our journey home from Port Talbot at about 4.30am. Frank had already been posted, so I made the journey with Mary in the carry cot, Frances who was then 13 and the two grandmas. We reached Cardiff and were stuck there for an hour. Poor Frances was not at all well and kept asking how much longer we would be there The whole business of the preceding 4 or 5 years had been a great strain on her; we had gone on holiday to Shanklin and not returned home for 5 years! We travelled first class and Mary slept in the cot. A gentleman who was sharing our compartment said that he had never known such a good baby. I guess that when he saw the cot he thought he was in for a noisy trip. We reached Paddington at noon. The trains were erratic, of course, and we had to get from there to Waterloo for our connection at 1pm. My sister Floss, who was at Paddington, grabbed the cot and we took a taxi. We explained our haste to the driver and off we hurtled - he certainly went to the top of the class for flowery language! I didn't know there were so many swearwords useful on the road! We made our connection and arrive home on a cold November afternoon.



Our good friends Mr and Mrs lake, had been keeping an eye on the house and had washed all our curtains and generally cleaned up, aired the beds and made a lovely roaring fire in the dining room with a kettle singing on the hob. It really looked like home and very welcoming. We soon got something to eat and began to get settled. The amount of luggage we had collected over the 5 years was amazing. The lounge was choc a bloc; we had had to get it moved by van. The garden was a wilderness with buddleia bushes growing between the crazy paving eight feet high! Frank got to work on it bit by bit and eventually it was clear. We were thankful we had a home to come back to; some people were not so fortunate. Soon the war was over, thank God.