Twinkle twinkle little star.............

As I sat engrossed doing my Ebay listings at the old patisserie counter in the cuisine today I realised I was singing to myself. I burst into laughter when I realised I was singing "Twinkle twinkle little star", but then something struck me.........I was singing it in the mad style of my late mum! Heavens! I am turning into my mum "Nanny Dot"!

It was a sort of "Twinkle twinkle doo dee doo, la la, dee dee, diidde diddle doo" !!!!

Nanny Dot as she was called by all the family sang to my brother, two sisters and me as we grew up and then sang in the same mad style to her grandchildren then to her great grandchildren. She could always remember the tune and the first few words but then always filled in the other rest with anything at all!

Mum was such an innocent and sweet lady and had us in constant hysterics mixing up her words and forgetting what she wanted to say. I have always said that she was the most "giving" person I ever met and I know she is up there with the hugest Versace wings you have ever seen!
Even today if someone in the family says something stupid there is always a resounding "How very Nanny Dot are you today?!!".

If ever I feel a little down and overworked I can always kick myself in the derriere by remembering how hard my mum had to work throughout her life. I then realise how very easy I have it.

She was born Doris Irene in the 1920s and in the mid 1930s her father died. So at the age of 9 she was removed from school to clean the house and help raise her three younger brothers and sisters while her own mother went out to work. From that early age she cooked,cleaned and cared for her siblings one of whom was just a baby. Despite this lack of schooling she had the most beautiful handwriting you had ever seen and was as bright as a button.

During the second world war she was of an age that she could be sent out to work to earn money to keep the family and her mother sent her to work in a munitions factory filling bombs with TNT. I recall she told me that each evening when she washed out her stockings and underwear the water ran red with the chemicals. She also said that if she had managed to get a bubble in the filling she would tap the bomb with a small hammer causing her colleagues to scatter!


Her younger sister was considered very delicate and was very beautiful, so a rich Aunt and Uncle who were childless asked if she could go to live with them in their large house. So Mavis went off to a cossetted life of luxury and mum remained the bread winner, child minder and house keeper inbetween her factory shifts.


Now I have started I do really have to give you her full story so more tomorrow.....................