"Our aunt Marion was good at planting trees.听Her garden had nettles and bindweed choking the currant bushes, but give her a spade and she would plant a tree.听The trainee from the local paper would click his camera, Aunt Marion would give a cheery smile and plunge the spade into the hole, prepared, if she was lucky, by the parks department, while her shoes filled with soil and the lady mayoress's chain swung from her neck.听Auntie wore a tailored costume on these occasions and her little fox fur.听Her hat had a jaunty feather and her shoes had heels - not very high, but too high for struggling across the sodden ground. Aunt Marion excelled at unveiling plaques and cutting tapes.听In the newspaper cuttings, she beamed attentively at the new concrete foyer, the building named after a writer or politician who had visited the town on his way to somewhere else.听She bent encouragingly to take flowers from the nervous small child, who then rushed pell-mell to hide behind Mummy鈥檚 skirt.听Auntie's children, our cousins Brenda and David, spent a lot of time at our house, eating baked beans and watching TV.听Brenda told tales and David's nose ran a lot. Auntie made people feel at ease.听She always found the right phrase - "Have you come far?" "You must be so proud".听She was like that at home, as well.听When Uncle Bill returned from the club, she would听always say,听"Would you like a nice cup of tea?", never "What time do you call this?" or "How much have you had to drink?". They were married for forty-one years, all through the muckraking by the "Evening Express" when that little slut in Bill's office accused him of sexual harassment.听Auntie had a way of rising above all that. Aunt Marion didn't have a career, as such.听She worked in the office at Gorton and Bugby's, but of course all that had to stop when Uncle Bill got his seat on the council.听 Auntie needed to support him in doing what she called his "civic duty". She was always rushing from coffee mornings to ladies' luncheons to rummage sales - not to mention tirelessly knocking on doors at election time.听Behind every great man, there is a good woman.听For Uncle Bill, that woman was our auntie. Have you got all the information you need, vicar?听That should strike just the right note. Did you know that the new recreation ground is going to be named after Uncle Bill?听 Auntie would have been so thrilled. Even after the divorce, she kept going through the cuttings, remembering.听The album was next to the bottle of pills, when she was found.听 Still, Bill will be at the opening with his new wife, Samantha. They are going to plant a tree." |
