Grandma Trusler’s
Whenever we spent Christmas Day at Grandma Lawrence’s, we nearly always went to Grandma Trusler’s on Boxing Day. The buses would be running in the afternoon, which meant we could travel easily to her house in Hamilton Road East Finchley.
The house was always crowded with relatives, and we had a great time as our cousins were there for us to play with. The front room looked festive every time we visited, with a small Christmas tree twinkling in the corner, dressed with tinsel and delicate glass baubles Grandma had carefully reused year after year. Also nestled within the branches of the tree were small gifts for us children: mostly whistles, games and drawing books.
Among the family present were Auntie Ada and her daughter Violet, Auntie May and Uncle Pete, Betty, Auntie Florrie and Charlie (they were considered a bit nutty and over the top), Uncle Jim, and Uncle Harold. Being young, Harold had a wind-up gramophone with a good selection of records such as Bing Crosby, while dear old aunt Lou would be dressed in black as always, despite the cheerful occasion. There was hardly ever enough room around the table for teatime. Auntie Edie—Grandma’s sister—together with her husband Charlie and their daughter Sylvia also came. Sylvia, being one of the older girls, took charge of us.
It was a time for laughing, and for trying to forget about the grim reality waiting for us on the other side of the festivities. Fortunately, there are few Christmas times I can recall during the war where there were air raids. Even the Germans accepted it to be a time for peace.
Grandma Trusler—or Nanny as we called her—was normally wrapped in a floral apron, sleeves rolled up and ready to rush to do the chores. She was not a wonderful cook (everything was plain, but acceptable) so we had many shop-bought Christmas puddings, Piper’s[26] steak and kidney pud’s, tins of herrings in tomato, spam and corned beef. Mind you, that is what most of us families lived on during war time.
Nanny had a black cat called Minnie, who almost always seemed to be sitting in a basket surrounded by kittens. Once during a bad air raid, we all squeezed in under the stairs and the kittens were climbing all over us in confusion.
We did stay the night at Hamilton Road once. It had been freezing cold and so Nanny suggested we bed down there instead along with Auntie May, Uncle Pete and Betty. Mum, May and Nanny went upstairs to fetch down a mattress so that we could sleep on the floor in the front room. A lot of giggling and laughing went on upstairs, and after some scuffling and screams, Mum and Auntie May came thumping down the stairs, ending up at the bottom step on the mattress. The only thing broken was their fall, thank God. They burst out laughing.
We loved going to Grandma Trusler’s. She always made us welcome and was never disagreeable or in a bad mood. All her life she was involved with children, first her own and then having Violet while Uncle Tom was away full-time in the Army and Ada was working day shifts at the Simms Motor Units factory making ammunition. After the war, when Tom came home from abroad, they managed to get a council flat on the Red Hill Estate in North Finchley. Before that, however, Grandma Trusler received a letter from Harold, who was serving in the Army in Germany and had met a girl in Lüneburg. He had got her into ‘trouble’ and they were getting married. Later, she had the baby.
Harold wanted to come home to England with his new family, but there was not a lot of room at Hamilton Road. Auntie Ada, Tom and Violet were still living there, and young Jimmy was still in his teens. However, being the person that she was, Nanny made room for the new German bride Anna, together with their young son Harold, who were welcomed by all the family. After a while, things became difficult. Anna would become moody and she and Ada would have arguments about sharing the kitchen. Fortunately, Ada and Tom moved to their new flat so things did get better.
Nanny looked after young Harold so that Anna could go to work to save up for when she and Uncle Harold had a home of their own. However, sadly for Harold, Anna met a man at the factory where she worked, packed her bags and left, taking his son with her.
Harold loved the little boy, and in despair he became ill and depressed, staying in bed for days on end and gradually becoming worse. After that, and during his life, he attended hospital for depression, never keeping a full-time job. Who knows, if fate had not dealt the cruel blow he might have been a different man.
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