Nina -- 1914 - 2003
was born 100 years ago today and without that event I would not be here and nor would Arthur, (Stuart d.1999) Annabelle, Margaret, Esme or Christine. And none of the children of those children and none of the grandchildren or greatgrandchildren -- Have we got to great great yet? I am not sure. But none of my stories or poems would have been written either.
She was 40 when I was born and I am not the youngest. And because there were so many of us I cannot claim that I knew her as I would have liked. I do know she would have loved to be a writer. English was her favourite thing at school and she just loved it when teacher said write a story. We had that in common she and I. I wish she could have read my stories and seen the work I do at EDP. She did see some of my early poetry. She didn't say much about it. That was not her way.
I wrote a poem about her several years ago. You can find it on page 60 - 61 The Ranfurly Review.
Room for Living Do take a look. But I think it is fair to say that a lot of who she was and what she gave me comes through in my writing.She led a good life.Was widowed at 45 and I haven't included three children who died as babies and several miscarriages. She kept going through thick and thin. Not much choice.
Mind you she had a good sense of humour -- schaddenfreund sort of humour but to be fair she laughed when she fell too!!She was tough. She had to be! And although sometimes I wish she could have been a little more affectionate, that was not in her nature and we always knew she knew us all as individuals and she loved us, every one.
