Grandma
Stock
Ian's mother left us all in July 1996, but not before giving the entire
family a rousing welcome and wonderful support. See History.
Here we are at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford (UK) the first time that grandma
met Marie-Hélène, Daphné and
Alban in the summer of 1994. She had
already gone through years and years of debilitating illness, but could still
throw you a winning smile.
As in this trip, we normally brought the car on the cross-channel ferry
to visit Grandma.
Daphné and Alban below in the Randolph during the same visit.
Before the Channel Tunnel was finally built, after close to a hundred years
of planning and reflection, a great public debate erupted all over the UK about
the wisdom of the endeavor.
Grandma wagged her finger at us and warned all who would listen that French
rats would migrate to England through the tunnel and spread rabies throughout
England's green and pleasant land.
The grain of truth in this fear was the failure of rabies to leap the channel
despite being firmly embedded on the continent for centuries. But her fear
conveyed a more visible British trait, and by "trait" we mean prejudice. The
English have spent centuries at war with the French, and when the two countries
were not at war they despised each other gracefully. Grandma was of Irish
extraction, but this prejudice had permeated her despite her Irish origins.
We were all doubly grateful that she took so warmly to
Marie-Hélène and her children. Of course, all three
are very lovable, but prejudice can blast right through the finer
characteristics of those discriminated against if it has a mind to. In
this case, it did not. We only had two years together as a family before Grandma
passed away, but no-one was kinder or more supportive, to all of us.
The photo above left was taken just after New Year's in
1995.
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Grandma with Laura Nash, her second grandchild, during a visit to Paris
earlier in 1994. The cigarettes were eternally present, but oddly enough
did not seem to play a role in her extravagant and diverse illnesses. |
With her best friend Kay and her surprise birthday cake
on her birthday in 1995. Goofy delivered the cake at the
California Grill in Disneyland Paris! Here
are more shots of that delightful evening, and here
is a shot of Kay with her husband. |
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With Ian, Nick and
Tom in Windsor on New Year's Day,
1995. She could still put up with the racket and the constant
motion, as long as it was in small doses!
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RIP
She was buried on Nick's birthday in
1996 next to her parents and near where she was
born, at Erdington Abbey in industrial Birmingham. The cemetery is between a railroad line and
a major road, only a few miles from the largest Motorway junction in England. Thank you Ron for the photo.
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