Evie has scheduled a birthday gathering for her Aunty Phil as it was her 95th birthday this week! After some pictures in the garden, all five of us piled into the Andrew's Citroen for the trip across town to the house she has lived in since 1943 or so.
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| Andrew, Phyllis, John, Evie and I with self timer on camera |
We were greeted there by Evie's God sister, Caroline and her mother Joan, and taken in to her sweet little home which Evie had lived in from aged three to five years old.
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| Auntie Phyl's house in Bristol--since 1943! |
Aunty Phil was in considerable pain from lumbago and sciatica; at 95 years old, she lives alone in a two story house with an incredibly narrow staircase which she still manages to negotiate up and down. We had some light sandwiches and a nice cake that Joan made and iced herself; very professional looking indeed. Evie reminisced with them for about two hours and we of course shot a couple of group photos for posterity.
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| Cousin Phyllis, Joan, Aunty Phil and Evie seated, Cousin Andrew and Godchild Carolyn standing |
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| Aunty Phyl's Birthday Cake |
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| Temple Meads station |
We then had to say our goodbye's and set off for the train station again for the trip to Banbury and the village of Kings Sutton to visit her old friend Carole.Evie's cousin-family droppedt us at Temple Meads station with lots of hugs and kisses.
"Meads" is a derivation of an old English word meaning "meadow" and refers to the wetland meadow alongside the River Avon that was part of the local Temple (church) parish. The temple was gutted during the Blitz in WW2.
We parted on time for Reading, changed trains, and were in Banbury in about 2 hours. It was so good to see Carole again who picked us up and drove us into the nearby village of King's Sutton (we looked it up on Wikipedia, and "Sutton" means "south estate").
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| Next leg of journey to Banbury and King's Sutton |
Carol, like Evelyn, also married an USAF serviceman and had lived in the states for 33 plus years returning home to England four years ago where she is renting a "cottage"; her's is the middle house in a long building of about ten of them; this is called a terraced home. It's quite narrow, with two floors and fairly steep stairs.
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| Carol's cottage is third entry down on outskirts of King's Sutton |
She cooked us a very nice meal of chicken and veggies and I retired early and finished the book ("2064") before falling asleep a couple of hours later. Evie stayed up catching up with Carole and all the news.
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