When I was a young child, it was a great treat to visit my paternal grandparents. I had three grandparents – or so I thought. They were my grandfather (“the faither”), my grandmother (“the mother”) and my grandmother’s older sister Auntie Annie, who was affectionately known as Yanos.
When my grandparents got married, Yanos was part of the deal: it was like a BOGOF – buy one and get one free! She moved in at the beginning of the marriage and stayed there for the rest of her life. She was part of that generation of women who would have married one of the young men sent off to fight in the First World War. Both my grandparents lost brothers in that war, as did almost every big and not so big family.
They must have realised when my grandmother married in her mid twenties, that there was not going to be a suitor for her sister, who was two years older, and that she had better come along too. Yanos was one of the gentlest, kindest and put-upon women I have had the privilege to meet. As each child in the family came along, Yanos was the one who did the bulk of the child care, the wiping of snotty faces and the settling of the child who couldn’t sleep. Because she was capably in charge of the eight children back at home, my grandparents were free to go on cruises and take exotic holidays all over the world – something almost unheard of in the 1930s. They led a very privileged life.
It was a great treat to go into Yanos’ bedroom, especially so because I knew I had been born in the bed in her room. My parents did not have a home of their own when I was born – they were barely out of their teens – and were temporarily living with my three grandparents. Of course, it had to be Yanos who gave up her room for my mother to give birth.
Yanos had an enormous wardrobe in that room, from which all sorts of interesting items would materialise – the most important being a seemingly endless stream of butterscotch sweets, which we loved, and treacle toffees, of which we were less fond – but encouraged to eat because they were good for our bowels, which were very close to our grandparents’ hearts!
Auntie Annie would sit at her dressing table and brush out her long hair, then put it up and push it into place with Amami Wave Set. She would change her glasses there, always keeping her eyes firmly shut between taking off one pair and putting on the other.
The most exciting things in her room were the fairies that danced around the walls. The “fairies” were caused by the sun hitting the crystal decanters which sat each side of Yanos’ dressing table. We would run around trying to “catch” a fairy on our hands.
I thought about Yanos when I read about how to warm up my “bed” when camping on Kilimanjaro. Yanos had a hard hot water bottle in her bed, and that is what we will have too. Hers was an enormous stone one, which didn’t seem at all cuddly. Ours will be a drinking flask, filled with very hot water, serving a dual function – we can sip from it as need be during the night too. I think she had an old cardigan to wrap around her bottle and I am sure we will find something to make our bottles cuddly too.
Note from Jae: Look Ma – last time we were in the caravan I took a photo of Osc with a fairy on his nose!
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