Caistor Heritage Centre

 

I remember the first time I went into the building which is now Caistor Heritage Centre.   I went to my aunt's wedding there around 1960 when it was Caistor Primitive Methodist Chapel.

A few years later the chapel closed and the congregation joined up with the Wesleyan congregation as Caistor Methodists.  The building then became Caistor Youth Centre but eventually it became very little used and a local group applied for (and got) lottery funding to create a wonderful centre including a cafe, an exhibition room and our local library.   

That was around 2012 (I think) and the centre is still well used today.  There is a paid manager but most of the work is done by volunteers.  There's a charity shop in Caistor which raises the necessary funding and the coffee shop does a very nice line in tea, coffee and cakes.

The centre is really important to our community.  The library is a lovely place to go and books are supplied by the county library service but the library is staffed by volunteers.  Volunteers do most of the work in the cafe too and I can vouch for the deliciousness of the cakes!

Today I went to see an exhibition and sale of artwork by a local artist.  Charles Blake is autistic and non-verbal but his artwork is stunning.  He does all sorts of crafts as well and I was delighted that he has accepted my commision to decorate a very tatty old table of mine with decopatch.  I'll show you when it's done.  

Auntie Bettie

I'm having a very sad day today.  I have said my final goodbyes to my Auntie Bettie.  In previous posts I've called her Auntie Hettie as I always change people's names on my blog but now she has died I'll call her Auntie Bettie.  

Bettie and I on her 92nd birthday

Bettie was my mum's little sister.  There was an eight year age difference between them and Bettie spent a lot of her childhood being minded by Mother as Grandma was a very busy farmer's wife.  Bettie was 15 when my parents were married and she was chief bridesmaid.   There was a very special bond between Bettie and my sister who was born when Bettie was 18.  

Bettie was the most wonderful aunt any child could hope for!  She was a primary school teacher and enjoyed being with children but when she was with us she was such fun, taking us on picnics or visits to the seaside or Father Christmas.  She had a skill which I have never known in anyone else - she could touch the end of her nose with her tongue!  This would have us all in fits of laughter and I'll bet some people reading this can no more resist having a go than we could as children.  

She didn't find romance herself until she was thirty six and she married Gordon.  They had two children and her years as a wife and mum were for her the best years.  Sadly the marriage lasted only twenty two years for Gordon died very suddenly when he was in his fifties leaving Bettie with a daughter away at college and a son still in his teens.

That was nearly forty years ago but Bettie has always been a well loved and respected member of the community here in Caistor.  She was active in the British  Legion and the Methodist chapel.  She was a member of the Women's Institute and the (then) Women's Voluntary Service.  It was because of Bettie that I came to live in Caistor - I wanted the opportunity for as wonderful a life as she was living.

Dying in a time of corona virus has meant that she has had very limited visitors and her care has fallen totally on her daughter who has been magnificent.  Today just her son, her daughter and I joined the minister for a very quiet burial, nothing like the huge funeral there would have been in normal times but the streets were lined with people paying their respects.

I have been privileged to be her niece.  

Simple pleasures of an extended family

I have no immediate family.  I never married and never had any children.  My only sister died some years ago and her only son lives in Belgium.  I also have an elderly aunt who lives here in Caistor.

However, I am richly blessed with cousins.  I had eight on my Mother's side of my family and nineteen on my Father's side.  Of those twenty seven, nine have died. 

I'm sure there were more than this.  I wonder where the others went?

Some I see very infrequently but several of them live within easy distance and many are ready to help me as soon as they receive a phone call.  But what is even lovelier is that they're not just at the other end of a phone line when I yell, we also meet up for the pleasure of each other's company.  

On the first Good Friday after I came to live here in Caistor Auntie Hettie invited me for Hot Cross Buns for breakfast.  Not just any buns, but Hot Cross Buns which she had freshly made on Good Friday morning.  What a labour of love!  She continued the tradition until a few years ago and her daughter Carrie took over.

And so this morning I had breakfast at Auntie Hettie's.  Hot, Hot Cross Buns.  Dripping with butter.

This simple pleasure is two-fold.  First there are the Buns themselves.  Good traditional food and delicious.  But the second is the joy of being part of an extended family and being valued in that family.

I don't like to moan but . . .

Innit 'ot?  I just don't do hot.  With cold I'm fine.  A few more layers of clothing and a wrap, nice hot soup and (keep this secret!) maybe have the heating on all day and cold is coped with.  Hot is a different matter.

I was rather glad that I didn't have a service to take today as it meant I could take the trundle truck up to church for the eight o'clock service.  Now church is comfortable.  Cool.  Quiet.  Lovely.

Anyway, less of this moaning.  I've had a pretty good week (with one ghastly exception) including a card making session at Mandy's.  Here you go.

The ghastly exception couldn't have been much more ghastly.  Auntie Hettie managed to fall out of her armchair while I was with her.  My cousin and I spent six hours in A & E with her.  She's got two really black eyes but no further injuries.  Old ladies of 92 just don't bounce.  

Whatever happened to April?

Whatever it was it didn't get blogged about!  So, just for the record, here are a few things which I did.

The big event of April was Auntie Hettie's 92nd birthday.  In honour of that event I am doing something I have never done before - I'm posting a recent photo of myself with Hettie.  Two peas from the same pod or what!!!   Sadly, a few days before her birthday Hettie had a nasty accident so in this photo she is in a care home and since then she's had a stay in hospital but on Tuesday she is going back to her own home.  Her bedroom has been newly decorated for her so it will be quite a celebration when she can get into it. 

You've already met the three little pigs so no more about them.

I went to Mandy's and I made some cards.  I think this one was my favourite.  

I've started the round of farewells to the five churches I have been looking after for the past six years.  Happily they have a new vicar coming in June.  Truth to tell I am ready to take a rather more minor role but the farewells are still bitter sweet.  I shall probably blog about that a bit more but not just yet.  

Quack

Jack has been to see Auntie Hettie.  Somehow this has happened.

Birthdays

Our Bill

St George

Four hundred years of The Bard!  I wonder what Mary Arden thought she was unleashing on the world when she gave birth four hundred and fifty two years ago?  She could not have imagined how that mewling and puking scrap of humanity would make an impact on all the English speaking world once he had finished creeping unwillingly to school, come to man's estate and had made the world his stage.  Four hundred and fifty two years ago today (or thereabouts!) he was born, four hundred years ago today he died on England's national day, St George's Day.  So cry God for England, Willy and St George!

Elizabeth II - Bond Girl!

The big birthday this week though was a ninetieth, that of Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Mountbatten-Windsor.  What an amazing woman!  Seeing photographs of her or television footage one would guess at someone in her sixties or at most, in her seventies.  I still smile when I think about the Olympic opening ceremony.  Her birthday celebrations will be going on for several months so I don't feel too bad at being slightly late in saying, Happy Birthday, Ma'am.

And in my own family we have been celebrating a special lady too.  Auntie Hettie was 91 this week.  For most people she isn't as important as either William S or Elizabeth R but for me she is one tremendous gal.  

Easter

I came home from church last Sunday and I still haven't left the house again!  I've had a truly disgusting cold so I've gone to ground.

I think there were twenty originally!

But I can honestly say I have had a wonderful Easter.  Until a couple of years ago Auntie Hettie always made Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday but she's now delegated responsibility to her daughter so at eight o'clock on Good Friday morning I was there with a very healthy appetite. 

Easter Sunday was its usual wonderful self and once again I shouted "Alleluia!  Christ is risen!" inciting the congregation to shout back, "He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!".  I can shout louder than all of them put together.  

The cards I received

A copy of the cards I sent

Then home and back to bed I'm afraid, but nothing can detract from the wonder which is Easter.  I had some lovely Easter cards and sent quite a few myself.  There is something very special about Easter cards.  I send far less cards than at Christmas but each that I send is to someone who I know shares something of my faith.  There's much less "Oh, I have to send a card to so-and-so because I know they'll send one to me".  I've had lovely wishes in the form of e mails in response to both e cards and snail mail cards.  Thank you if you have been one of my well wishers.  As I said, I've been feeling a bit rough all week and lovely Christian wishes have done me a power of good!

A very happy Auntie Hettie

The loveliest part of Easter though happened a few days earlier when Auntie Hettie met her latest great-great-niece.  It was a reminder that God gives New Life in every way imaginable.

I am about to start my Sabbath, that special time for me and God.  I have so much for which to be thankful.

Every blessing.

Memories of Christmas past 1

When I was a little girl my parents were not church-goers so my memories of childhood Christmas are not very holy.  I was usually involved in a nativity play at school but that was about as far as it went!

At my infant school there was, of course, a Christmas party and Santa would come along.  All we children would be gathered together in the school hall having our tea and there would be a great bang on the roof.  Santa had landed with his sleigh!  All eyes would be raised to the high windows of the big room because Santa would walk along the roof of the adjoining corridor and we could see him through the high windows.  Within minutes he would be with us and each child would receive a book from him.

He would actually have arrived in town a few days before that.  He always arrived by train at the local station and would be met by his special transport which might be a sleigh or a rocket or a train.  What ever it was would actually be on a co-op milk lorry and he would then make his way from the railway station into town.  The route would be lined by cheering children and their long suffering parents.  He would go to the local co-op where he would take up residence for about three weeks before Christmas.

One year Auntie Hettie took me to see Santa and for some reason I was given a parasol.  Parasols have never been very relevant to English Decembers but I insisted in putting it up and carrying it thus all the way home.  Scarcely had I got inside the house but Auntie Hettie sat on it!  In view of that terrible thing I think it is amazing how much I love my Auntie Hettie.

Back to childhood

I’m well into the swing of cake baking for Auntie Hettie’s party.  (See http://trundlingthroughlife.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Hettie)  

I always did enjoy cake!

We’re expecting about 150 guests so I definitely need a swing!  Others are baking - even her son who is definitely not A New Man is having a go – but the bulk of the cakes will come from my oven.  I made the rich fruit cake before Christmas and I’m now into sponges, carrot cake, tray bakes and the like.  

The thing is, I never bake.  Truly I don’t.  I live alone and most of my friends don’t eat much cake so there’s no reason to wield the mixing bowl.  This week is an adventure not just for me but for my oven, my electric mixer and the various cake tins etc that I have borrowed.  Each day I do a bit more then wrap it and get it into the freezer.

And each day I go back to childhood – I’d forgotten the fun of licking out a bowl!

Auntie Hettie

Throughout my childhood Auntie Hettie was always around.  She was my mother’s younger sister and she was always such fun to be with.  She was an infant school teacher and she just loved children.  She would take us to the seaside and she would take us to see Father Christmas.  Whatever was going on which was fun, Auntie Hettie was right there in it.

She didn’t marry until she was in her mid-thirties and then she had two children, Carrie and Garry.  Sadly she was widowed in her fifties and she missed her husband dreadfully.  However, she is a feisty lady so once again she built a new life for herself.  A few years ago  Carrie moved back in with her so Auntie Hettie has been able to stay in her own home.

And next month Auntie Hettie will be ninety.  What a day that will be!  She doesn’t read my blog so I can let you in on a small secret – there will be a party!  Carrie, Garry and I have seen to that.

And I now have the best excuse out to search though all my old photos and memorabilia to find everything I can about the life and times of Auntie Hettie.  What fun!