all that's left....

    

wasn't really thinking of posting today

but then I went to Flickr

and saw a seven day old comment

on a photo I posted

who knows when...

it's from Mahdu

who saw something in the background of the photo and made mention

it's a plate that belonged to my mother

it's old and chipped and the glaze is all crazy

but I keep it

....

it was my mother's!!!!

I remember being told as a child that my Mother had a "thing"

 for tea sets and dinner services

as they were called

anything china actually

apparently when they lived in Egypt and had a nice house and were probably all settled in

expecting to live their life there

she collected them

but history took over the story and

in what must have been a  very short and stressful time

they swooped my sister and I up and carried us off

out of a country in turmoil

into another

 strange and unknown

I have no memory of Egypt or our arrival in Kenya

I do remember our first house there

but not the journey to it

having no memory of Egypt makes my memories of childhood in Africa the place I think of as home

in a way

we had tons of friends

my parents lived a good life

and the memories are of wonderful things and sights

and even more wonderful holidays in other even more exotic places

the sister and I really do appreciate how very lucky we were to have lived that as young children

and then when the bad times came again

I most certainly was too young to understand the danger and the stress of having to

once again up and leave a life behind

and move on

this time to my father's home land of England

I was 10 when we got there and the first memory is of

feeling cold

we arrived in January

and it was

cold

I can still see us

standing on the thing in the middle of the  road waiting to cross to go and buy

winter coats for us all

and my mother crying because her girls were

cold!!!!

honest....

I even remember the coat

it was tweedy but in blues

and it felt strange

we had no home there of course

my father had no family or place to live

so we stayed in a bed and breakfast

that was run by someone my parents knew from another visit I think

but it was cold and smelly and we didn't like it

and we ate at what was called a

"caff"

in England

a cafe but they mispronounced it

don't know if they still have them or call them that!!!

Ruth...Mia...Elaine..... anyone!!!

anyway the food was horrid and so was everything else

my poor mother and father

it must have been hell for them

they left everything behind....again

we just had what they could carry and the clothes on our backs

.......................................................

but we had a place to go

some didn't

so we were OK

just a bit lost I guess

and after a while we found a place to live

just down the road from

HRH Elizabeth II

who

 I used to visit

well, she never knew I was there

but I knew she was!!!!!!

:) :) :)

and slowly slowly they/we acquired that

 which makes a home

and my mother got herself some new

china sets

and this is all that's left of her last one

I did dream once of getting it all replaced from that china company that finds old china

but I don't think I will

this was hers

the ones they found

wouldn't be

and new

is out

of the question

.....................................................................................

the end!!!!!