On my great aunt’s death in 1997, aunt Em came to live with us for a time at the house in The Portwey. When she moved in she brought the remnants of the furniture from Avon Street; there were - and still are - three pieces that were said to have been made by my great uncle, aunt Bessy’s husband, a sideboard in solid mahogany purported to have been made for their wedding, a wall cupboard where he kept his medicines as he was an ailing man and a small Pembroke table on which stood a hand singer sewing machine. Two of these are in possession of my cousin Doreen who was a regular visitor to my aunt Em until her death. Aunt Em lived at times with my mother, uncle Frank, uncle Alf and later in sundry flats and rooms; finally settling in a small house in Braunstone Gate, small being very small: one room up and one room down. Underneath the narrow stairs was a stone sink, cooking was on a coal fire range supplemented by a gas ring. There was one tap and two toilets shared by three houses. Upstairs, the stairs came straight into the bedroom with no rail or other protection around the oblong hole in the floor. The house was later condemned and my aunt was moved to a council bungalow on the Eyres Monsall Estate, and finally went to an old peoples’ home in Aylestone village.
Aunt Em never married as she looked on it as a duty to look after the family; she was the link between all its members. All children in the family could do no wrong, and she always brought something for them on her visits up until they were aged about 10. I suppose we never really appreciated her dedication which followed to a certain extent the pattern set by great aunt Bessy.
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