My mother also had a brother, apart from the sister I have already mentioned, called Alfred, or Uncle Alf as we knew him. He was married to a lovely lady called Aunty Cis.
Uncle Alf and Aunty Cis had a total of 10 children and we always went to visit them at least twice a year, once during the summer and again at Christmas time, but I can remember Christmases the most. It was always Boxing Day when we went and everybody had such a happy time.
Their kitchen was a large room at one side of the house that ran from the back of the house to the front, it contained an enormous long table where all the children sat around it with Aunty Cis at the one end and Uncle Alf at the other end for their meals.
I can remember us children playing charades or pass the parcel, or postman's knock as well as hide and seek. In those years we didn't have television to watch to keep us quiet, in fact Uncle Alf and Aunty Cis adored children and we were allowed to make as much noise as we wanted, within reason.
As Uncle Alf and Aunty Cis didn't have a great deal of money to spend, their children didn't get too many toys to play with and I was always being told how lucky I was because whenever I grew out of anything I always had new whereas, Beryl who was nearest to me in age, whenever she needed anything it was usually something handed down from one of her older sisters.
Uncle Alf and Aunty Cis loved each other greatly and both died within a couple of days of each other. They were so devoted that they couldn't live without each other.
But as a family they have stuck together over all these years and I still go and visit them at least once each year, when Beryl holds a barbecue at her house in the summer and they have a big family get together at the village hall in Kemble just before Christmas.
Unfortunately at the beginning of December 2004 Josie, or Josephine to give her, her correct name, became the first of these siblings to die.
I know it hit them hard because as well as Josie dying, Dorothy the eldest girl has decided to go back and live in Australia so as to be near her daughter who was born out there. Dorothy went to Australia to become a matron of a hospital and married an Australian. Unfortunately the marriage didn't last but Dorothy felt if she needed to keep in contact with her Daughter and see her grandchildren then she had to make the sacrifice and return to Australia.
I have quite a few photos of this family taken over the years, one in particular shows them sitting on a playground rocking horse with the youngest at the front to the eldest at the rear.
I also have some photographs taken of Beryl and I on a pleasure boat at Bourton-on-the-Water.
My eldest brother at this time was in the Royal Navy and had befriended a young South African sailor on secondment to the Royal Navy, unfortunately this young man had had to have a operation for Appendicitis and was on leave to help him recuperate so he came to stay with us. We had gone out for the day hence these photos.
Our summer visits always coincided with the annual Tetbury Fete that we attended with the whole family. As usual each year I went in fancy dress and was entered in the fancy dress competition that was relevant to what I was dressed as. It could have been a special class or just a class for my age group. Aunty Cis would also dress Beryl up as well in fancy dress and we were both entered at the same time.
