Monday, November 22, 2021
My Birthday Present to my Beloved David... and a Story.
1968 - Not long after David and I married in Guildford, Surrey he asked me to darn one of his socks! I was horrified, yes I can sew, I can knit... but darning?? He also suggested I turn a collar on his old shirt! Turn Collars?? Darn Sock's?? I had never known anyone in my family who did this sort of thing so where on earth did he get these ideas from?? I know his mother nor would his Grandmother have done this so??
1967 - Let me introduce you to Auntie Nellie.
When David arrived in the UK in 1967 he first stayed with and spent a lot of time with the Waugh family who's son Peter he'd met in NZ hence the reason to travel to England and start seeing the World.
In this photo we have from left - Rupert, Elsie, Peter, Aunty Nellie, Barb (also an Aussie) a young French visitor, David and Christine Waugh on his lap.
Auntie Nellie was a single woman with no home of her own but several siblings who she stayed with in rotation. While staying with Rupert and family Nellie would do mending jobs such as Darning Socks and Turning Collar's.
I arrived in Guildford in 1968 and it was Elsie who put on a little Wedding lunch for us, we did stay with the Waugh's for a week before our Wedding and of course visited many times over the three years we were travelling around.
I remember seeing Nellie doing the mending on her visits but never never never was I going to 'Darn a Sock' or 'Turn a Collar'.
Okay... we are now 53 years and 5 months married and... as today is David's birthday his gift from me is bigger than any gift I've given him before!
