Condolences from a small great-grandson; a happy birthday and a treasured card; green-wellied Rick; farewell the Anderson Shelter; a new pond; “queer turns” and “nasty falls”; a last new bird for the garden; several new additions to the Family, and “Good night my dear. God bless you”.
It is June 30th 1991, four days after Jane’s funeral. Gran writes:
I rang Beverly to ask how she is and she said she had recovered from her exhaustion and was very touched and proud that Jane had asked her to be with her during her illness. I thanked her for being with Jane at the last and for her support for me in the Church at Jane’s Funeral Service.
The following day Gran receives a heartfelt and uplifting letter from Julian, based with the RAF in Germany, praising Jane and her “spirit, her values and her bravery”, adding, “… I’d be really proud if I were her Mum”. And with Julian’s communication is a letter from his son, Sam, saying, Gran writes, “Dear Great Gran – we were very sad too”.
On July 16th: “Post brought a letter from Janet Hoskins in Canada, who was Jane’s oldest friend, having started at Winchester County High School with her…”
“A most beautiful and happy 87th birthday!”, she manages to write enthusiastically on July 22nd, “… I received a dozen lovely cards and nine presents”, including from neighbours, the Kingstons, the Griffins and the Hardings – flowers, various books, toiletries and chocolates. “I walked round the Lake at 9.20 and fed the Mallard and was home at 10.10”, she writes. And she receives a birthday card from Julian, for a 10-year old, but with a photograph of him running, which she has treasured and kept between the journal’s pages.
Katie and Paul are visiting at this time and Katie drives her Gran to Farley Mount where, as always, she derives enormous pleasure in the downland flowers that she finds, and the “… several butterflies enjoying the sun – Meadow Browns, Marbled Whites, Ringlets, Tortoiseshell, Painted Lady and small Skipper”.
“We were home at 4.50”, she records, and, “I gave my Arthur Rackham books to Katie, having originally left them to Jane in my Will”.
More birthday cards arrive on the following day, including “… one from Andy and Judy containing the glad news that I am to have another great-grandchild in March”.
On July 25th:
Post brought me a book, “Discovering Angus and the Mearns” by John Henderson, in which Chapter Five was entitled ‘Strath and Howe’. The Montrose Basin is described as:
… the Local Nature Reserve and the full-time Ranger is Rick Goater, an eminently suitable individual. If his name seems somehow appropriate, his appearance is positively so. The tanned, bearded, wax-jacketed and green-wellied Rick Goater is the epitome of your contemporary ranger/naturalist.”
There is more, which I cannot bear to share…
And, similarly embarrassing, on August 17th:
Post brought me a letter from Ricky, thanking me for his pullover and including a long profile of him with photograph, from the local Montrose newspaper. I have stuck it in my ‘Rogues’ Gallery’.
The final years
Jane’s death and funeral are the last major events recorded in Gran’s journal. Nevertheless, she continues to write much during the period from 1991 until the Spring of 1995, by which time she is nearly 91 years of age. Her boundaries become much reduced during this time, and her physical and mental agility begin to fail. She often takes short walks though, to the Lake where she feeds the ducks, and around her garden, where she takes such pleasure in each well-known and loved plant and flower.
Barry demolishes the old Anderson Shelter in The Ridge’s back garden and its place is taken by a pond, which provides Gran with much interest. She sits by it often, noting dragon- and damsel-flies, birds and insects coming to drink and frogs spawning.
Although her easily-read hand-writing changes little in these last years, it is occasionally somewhat wobbly. She sometimes becomes confused with dates and page numbering, and she suffers several “queer turns” as she calls them, and a number of falls, including once, she tells us, in the garden where she had “… a nasty fall while gathering primroses for an arrangement for Mary’s birthday and had great difficulty getting up again”.
She recognises her declining faculties, and they cause her concern. After a Club coach outing to Christchurch on September 11th 1991, during which she sat by the estuary and became very cold, she writes in her notes on the following day, “I had been very worried last night because I was so stupid and had to give up writing because I was putting down such rubbish!” However, she feels better on the following morning.
On September 18th Gran records her last new bird for the garden. There is clearly a small migration of Summer visitors taking place, and with two or three Spotted Flycatchers, she and Barry see a Pied Flycatcher, “The first“, she says, “I have ever had in the garden”. And no doubt it revives happy memories of these birds, shared with her “dear old Brother” during their holidays together in Aberedw, near Builth Wells.
October 25th brings news from Julian of a new great-grandchild, the first, much to Gran’s great pleasure, of a rapid succession of new additions to the family. Julian and Sue’s Matthew, is recorded as: “a ‘large’ son at 8lbs 15 oz”.
And a few days later, Katie and Paul tell her that they “… are due to have their first baby next June. I wish Jane and Stuart could know they are due to become grandparents next year”, writes Gran sadly.
The year 1992 brings some happy news of grandson Geoff, much-loved by Gran but always a cause of concern for her owing to some difficult life challenges thrown his way. He is married, and he and his wife, Teresa, become parents to Stacey Margaret on March 6th. And Gran writes twelve days later: “Andrew phoned at 12.20 with the glad news that Judy had safely given birth to a daughter, Charlotte Elizabeth [actually Olivia, Gran typically mis-hearing it on the phone!], and all is well”.
By December 1992, Katie and Paul have produced their first child but a Book is missing prior to this, and Gran’s record of great-grandson Timothy’s birth in July is not available. However, on December 6th she is taken by Barry and Jane Elizabeth to Katie and Paul’s house in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, where she meets Tim for the first time. Tim is Christened on May 16th 1993.
Gran is addicted to finding something to record in her journal every day and her last Books are filled with her days recorded in minute detail, often with the doings of others – the times that Barry and Jane Elizabeth leave the house for shopping or entomological and botanical expeditions; their activities in the garden; birds noted in the garden and their behaviours – singing, bathing, feeding, nesting and squabbling.
The Ridge becomes something of a Mecca for European entomologists, who visit Barry – such a well-known and recognised expert on the subject – and are fed and cared for by Jane Elizabeth, and who often stay for nights and undertake field trips to local natural history “hotspots”. Gran enjoys their interesting presence in her domaine and they are often very kind to her. One such visit is this, on November 18th 1994, and it brings forth a distant memory, though, typically these days, she gets the date wrong:
Michael and Sheila Harper came at 3.38 and are staying the night. Michael was a boy staying at Dalwhinnie in Scotland when I first met him and we got soaked sheltering in a trench in pouring rain with his dog, when his parents provided a packed lunch of ham and salad and fruit salad in 1947.
March 18th 1995 brings us Gran’s final entry. As ever, she does not forget that it is written for and to her beloved and long-departed Adrian:
Sunshine and cloud today. There were two Magpies down the garden at 9 a.m. A Wood Pigeon was feeding and a Wren singing. There was a Bumble Bee on the Scillas in the bed on the mound… Barry and Jane went to Romsey to pick up Colin and Anne [Jane Elizabeth’s sister and her partner], who are staying for the weekend. They went round the garden… a Magpie was on Monique’s roof.
Sunset was clear and the full moon is now shining in the West. Good night my dear. God bless you.
Epilogue
When I penned the Introduction to my proposal to edit the journal of my Grandmother, Joan Adelaide Goater (née Adamson), I wrote:
I sit on a high stool at our breakfast bar, in our new house at Doune, in Perthshire, laptop open in front of me, at the end of a day soon after my own retirement from work late in 2016 and I have decided to distil and edit Gran’s words into a document that I hope will be interesting to the Family and to Chandler’s Ford residents, and which may even prove to be a worthwhile historical document. At the age of 61, I fear I know myself too well; I readily lose interest, there are many pages to read and I may not finish the task…
Now, five years later, it is ended. I did not lose interest; there were, indeed, many pages to read, and I did finish the task. The endeavour, it turns out, has been a joy, constantly enlightening and for me, it is almost as though my Gran has lived again, because, for the duration of the project she has been daily in my thoughts.
She wrote in excess of 8 million words between 1947 and 1995 and I have reduced and edited them to around 430,000. Always in my mind when choosing what to include and what to leave out I considered what may be of interest to members and friends of the Goater and Adamson Families; what might be nostalgic or compelling for residents of Chandler’s Ford and also what might be historically fascinating to any potential reader in several hundred years’ time.
Her writings began as a “record of beautiful things” for Adrian Turvey, the man with whom she corresponded for only a brief period before he died early in 1947, and with whom she may have hoped to share her life, experiencing those beautiful things together. It was, in particular, a love of wild British Orchids, that brought them together, at a time when Gran’s marriage had become unbearably unhappy. She, in her deepest sadness, following his death, made a vow to write something for him every day of her life and this indeed, she did, until her own frailty, it seems, prevented it, forty-eight years later.
Although her journal was conceived in utter desolation, and my discovering this early on, led me to believe at first that she was unhappy all her life after 1947, this was clearly not so. The journal, apparently, gave her a reason for living and for relishing the joys and sorrows of her existence and she became something of a collector of material to write-up each day. She was, indeed, a Collector; not only of daily events, but also of attractive stones, postage stamps, First Day Covers, books (especially those illustrated by Arthur Rackham) her own wonderful water-colours of flowers, and press cuttings (primarily those concerning the athletics career of her first grandchild, Julian).
Gran had lived through two World Wars before she embarked on her journal, and it is, perhaps, likely that these events moulded her attitudes and outlook on life. She was deeply patriotic, with a high regard for the Royal Family. She had a fierce love of the British Isles though was fond and proud of England and Englishness in particular. She was a stoic. She was used to the privations of wartime and was content with little and wished for few material things in her life. She trod lightly on this Earth, using limited resources and spurning what she would consider to be luxuries, except a replacement hip for which she was deeply thankful. She repaired her own clothes, made many of them last a very long time, and knitted many garments for herself and others. Her diet was plain and simple. She rose early in the morning and retired early at night. She walked and cycled thousands of miles during the period of the journal and was incredibly fit for all but the last few years of her life.
How lucky was Gran in the neighbours that she had: for many years, Ken and Jean Hockridge, and then, for even more years, Bill and Ruth Kingston. Both reared young families during their times adjacent to The Ridge and their relationships with Gran became so close that each almost treated the other as an extension of their own family unit.
These are two families whose stories remain unfinished in the journal. What became of them and their grown up children? There are many others too – characters who enter Gran’s life for a period, often without an introduction, and then quietly vanish without further mention: Hazel Bidmead, Peg Eagle, George Green, John Gunningham, Pauline Muirhead, Ceres Esplan, Fairlie Adamson and several others of those cousins who played with Gran and her brother Norris in North Wales during the early years of the 20th century.
One story we can bring up to date. “The Ridge”, the house built in Hiltingbury Road in 1928 for the newly married couple, William Cecil and Joan Adelaide Goater, has been the residence of Goaters continuously since that time. Gran’s son, Barry, and his wife, Jane Elizabeth, remained there after Gran was moved into a care home in Hursley Road for the last period of her life. Jane Elizabeth, with a failing heart, died peacefully there, in the arms of her son Geoffrey, early in 2015.
Barry, my Dad, lives on there, in the home where he spent his first twenty-one years, before moving away for his working life and then returning to care, with his wife, for “Mother”, and where now, at the age of ninety-one, he has dwelt for a total of more than fifty.
Article series
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 1)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 2)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 3)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 4)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 5)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 6)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 7)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 8)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 9)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 10)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 11)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 12)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 13)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 14)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 15)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 16)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 17)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 18)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 19)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 20)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 21)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 22)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 23)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 24)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 25)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 26)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 27)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 28)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 29)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 30)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 31)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 32)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 33)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 34)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 35)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 36)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 37)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 38)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 39)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 40)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 41)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 42)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 43)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 44)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 45)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 46)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 47)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 48)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 49)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 50)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 51)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 52)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 53)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 54)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 55)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 56)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 57)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 58)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 59)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 60)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 61)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 62)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 63)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 64)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 65)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 66)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 67)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 68)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 69)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 70)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 71)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 72)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 73)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 74)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 75)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 76)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 77)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 78)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 79)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 80)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 81)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 82)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 83)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 84)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 85)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 86)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 87)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 88)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 89)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 90)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 91)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 92)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 93)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 94)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 95)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 96)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 97)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 98)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 99)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 100)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 101)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 102)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 103)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 104)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 105)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 106)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 107)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 108)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 109)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 110)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 111)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 112)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 113)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 113)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 114)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 115)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 116)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 117)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 118)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 119)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 120)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 121)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 122)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 123)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 124)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 125)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 126)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 127)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 128)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 129)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 130)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 131)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 132)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 133)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 134)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 135)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 136)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 137)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 138)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 139)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 140)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 141)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 142)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 143)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 144)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 145)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 146)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 147)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 148)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 149)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 150)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 151)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 152)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 153)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 154)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 155)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 156)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 157)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 158)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 159)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 160)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 161)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 162)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 163)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 164)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 165)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 166)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 167)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 168)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 169)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 170)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 171)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 172)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 173)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 174)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 175)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 176)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 177)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 178)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 179)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 180)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 181)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 182)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 183)
Paul says
Thank you! It’s been a truly fascinating journey via your grandmother’s journal. Thank you especially for your endurance with the task of giving your grandmother to us.
Rick Goater says
Thank you Paul – very much appreciated.
Allison Symes says
This has been an excellent, moving, and simply brilliant series. Thank you for sharing it here.
Rick Goater says
Many thanks for your comment Allison. What on earth will I do now?!
Monica Schwalbenberg-Peña says
I have an idea! Post your Grandmother’s paintings!
Thanks so much for editing and sharing the journals.
What a treasure!
peter david shuttler says
As David Butcher (now peter david shuttler) in the late 1940’s I attended Peter Symons school in Winchester at the same time as Eric (?) Goater – he used to get on the bus at Hiltingbury Road. I would presume that Adelaide is a descendent of his and I look forward to her articles on bird life. I have lived in Tasmania (Australia) now since 1958 and will be 90 next month.
Jill Andrew says
Well done Rick for a work of dedication and love in honour of a remarkable lady who I remember from my earliest days.
I found parts of the epilogue very moving.
Thank you.
Rick Goater says
Hello Jill, thank you for this. Yes, I was somewhat moved while writing the epilogue. It’s great that the venture has put us in touch with each other and others in the Harding family.
Del scorey says
Fantastic,thank you,what a Lady!!!!
Rick Goater says
Thanks Del – wonderful that people bothered to read such a chunk of wordery more or less each week.
Carol Ashman says
Have really enjoyed reading the words & story of your grandmothers life. I remember the house and seeing your grandmother from when I lived in kingsway until 1976 and my mother worked at biddles newsagents. I still go along hiltingbury road frequently as I live nearby. Shall miss getting the emails.
Rick Goater says
Thank you Carol. Kingsway is as familiar to me as is Hiltingbury road. My mum was brought u pat No. 99 and lived there again with her Dad Frank MacNoe for a spell after her marriage broke up. I often stayed with her and her two girls there at the same time as you were living there.
Del scorey says
I have a feeling my dad may have decorated at the ridge but not 100%,also sure my mum may have known the family a bit ,from her time at Martins,and then safe ways,
Mrs Barbara D Morton says
Well done Rick! I did not know Joan, neither do I know Chandler’s Ford, but I have been gripped by the blog right from the start!
Rick Goater says
Barbara! Great to hear that you persevered with this. I had heard that you found it too wildlifey at the beginning and I thought you gave up. But I did think you would enjoy it as it became more of a family saga! Many thanks for your comment.
Jan Maish says
Thank you Rick,
I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed reading this family history. I have learnt so much along the way and it’s given me lots to think about. I loved hearing about Joan’s tennis playing and her comments on Wimbledon. I was particularly affected and very sad reading the last but one episode which recorded Jane’s death, such a sad thing for her mother to witness. Like others I didn’t want your posts to end and will miss them. It’s a brilliant account and social history.
Rick Goater says
Aha Jan – I thought of you when I wrote the last words and thought you might be sorry it was all over. Many thanks for your several comments and encouragement.
Doug Clews says
Hi Rick …
A BIG thank you for all your hours, thought and trouble putting together all 183 episodes of the record of a wonderful life of wonderful people …
It brought back good personal memories for me of people I knew (I was the same age as Adelaide’s daughter Jane, and at Peter Symonds’ at the same time as Barry… I also spent much time at the Lake and knew all Jane and Barry’s friends) …
Take care, stay safe and have a great 2022 …
Doug Clews
Rick Goater says
Hi Doug – Happy New Year to you too. You were the first to place a comment on this blog, and I’m very grateful for that, and that it triggered some nice memories for you. What a wonderful place C’ford was in those early days! You take care and stay safe too.
Rick
Julian Goater says
Well done Rick – brilliant achievement condensing Gran’s 8 million words and bringing her life, Chandler’s Ford life, and our memories into perspective and back to life all these years later! And for making the blog so interesting and readable that her words and thoughts have been shared, and clearly caught the interest and imagination of numerous people round the world. Think you should now start keeping your own diary??!!
Rick Goater says
Thanks Ju, given that we both knew Gran so well compared with most other readers of this blog, I wonder how our perception of her while reading it differed from other folks’? Only we can remember the Lino on the floor, the ebony elephants on the mantel-piece, the smell of the paraffin heater in the hall and the wooden swing in the garden, the seat of which was almost too wide and risked hitting the old telegraph pole supports with each swing. Nice to have been able to include a picture of you running in the last episode!
Sue Parsons says
I am really sorry this has come to an end. The story of life lived at a slower pace, giving one “time to stop and smell the roses” has been so enjoyable, and interesting. A huge amount of work!
Rick Goater says
Thank you Sue. Yes, I think many of us in today’s world could learn a thing or two from Gran’s example. We would all be better off “smelling the roses”.
All the best,
Rick
Monica Schwalbenberg-Peña says
Thanks so much, Rick, for this wonderful journal. Such a labor of love, such a pleasure to read, a privilege to get to know Joan and her paintings, and to observe the birds, flowers and moths that she loved. I thought of Joan and of your family yesterday as I participated in our Christmas Bird Count.
I am sad to have the journals end, but glad to know that I can read them again!
Happy New Year to you and your family.
Diane Allen says
Thank you so much for this lovely series. The last edition brought me to tears. Your Gran was a remarkable woman.
Lovely to read that your Dad still lives at The Ridge.
Janet Williams says
Hi Diane,
Thank you for your message. We all love this wonderful series. We spoke several times before and you told me how much you and Steve have enjoyed these stories. These stories are totally amazing, and especially during Covid, these stories have given people lots of enjoyment. We all apprecite Rick’s great work in putting things together. The photos, the writing, summaries …… perhpas there’ll be more in the near future. We would like to say a huge thank you to Rick.