It was January 13th and we were travelling from South Wales to join the celebrations.
The weather was cold and we passed through snow covered hillsides on the way
but the roads were clear
We were to travel to Newton-le-willows to my brother's house where the surprise
the party was being held we arrived on time and were able to join all the other members
of mothers family before mother was introduced.to loud applause and the rendering
of 'Happy Birthday to you' she was surprised as she had no idea of the arrangements
that had been made
All had a good time and for mother, in particular seeing all her family in one
place at the same time usually only weddings were the only venues where such
gatherings took place one or two of her friends who she hadn't seen for some time
had also accepted the invitation and added to mothers excitement on the evening .
At the end of the evening we had arranged to take mother back to Adanac where
we had planned to stay for the rest of the weekend before heading back to Wales.
That was the plan until events that followed changed everything on route back
to Adanac the final drive decided to play up the journey that should have
taken 30mins took 1hr but at least we made it back and to safety
It was Saturday evening and would not be able to get any assistance until Monday
I had previously been offered a vehicle identical to this one by the BMW garage
where we had this one serviced,it was on one of my visits there that I had seen this
car in the compound,It had a seized engine and they had decided it not worth repairing
and asked me iff I wanted to buy it It had a fairly new set of tyres on it so I valued
the tyres and offered them a price based on that.I didn't hear anything back for
some time and thought they thought my feeble offer a bit cheeky,but then got
a phone call asking me if I still wanted the car they let me borrow there low
vehicle loader to collect it.
I stripped everything of value off the car and took the rest to the local tip (scrap had
no value then) included in my spare parts was the final drive unit,so I managed to
to get a lift back to Reading with my niece and her husband who were returning to
London after the party,so I was able to catch a train back to Wales
I was able to use my wife's car to return to Cheshire with the parts I needed.
I managed to replace the final drive unit without difficulty,apart from the cold
and having to work at a virtual ground level,our schedule was still intact returning
after the weekend albeit in two cars instead of one.
Mother went on to complete a further 14 birthdays,she remained in her Warden
accommodation for 10 of those years,before spending 3 years living with my
brother and his wife at their home in Shropshire before moving to a private
nursing home in Oswestry,where she passed away peacefully aged 94 yrs
Her final resting place being St Mathews Church Stretton.Cheshire the
As indeed to the whole family at different stages.
Mother had all her faculties intactIt was only her short- term memory that was
failing her,she would reminisce about the happy times they enjoyed when living in
Canada many years ago,but would mistake me for my brother when visiting her ,
quite funny really.Mother's mother (Nanny Parker) was 96 when she died I
remember she did have an eye operation for cataracts when she was 80years
In those days it was quite a big operation,she had bandages over her eyes for a
number of days.but like mother, her other faculties were all intact.
