Editing tough times

Tough times My name is Alice Brown, I was born in 1896 in Nottingham , and I was an orphan as a child. I had four brothers and one sister, Tom, Albert, Edward, John and Elise, we were all separated orphans in different orphanages so I was told. They were very strict, little food and money was tight. My Mum married Harry after my Dad died so she put me into orphanage. I never knew my step brothers and sisters but my Mum used to write me letters. She put me in orphanage because my real Dad wasn’t alive, I couldn’t see why that was a problem and I can’t now. By the time I was fourteen to seventeen, I worked fourteen hours a day in a warehouse. It was 1913, on a very cold winter’s November’s evening. I was sitting on a street corner staring into space and freezing cold. I was wearing a grey ragged dress, very thin cotton. Suddenly I noticed a very blond haired man coming towards me, wearing a scarify black jacket and trousers. We talked all night long as he gave me his jacket to put which was miles too big for me. His name was Fred Brown. Fred was bought up be his Father single handed as his Mother Joyce died very young. His Dad was a miner in Nottinghamshire. George married again to a lady named Elizabeth and they had Fred’s step brother Bill. Both George and Elizabeth died when Fred was twelve and Fred raised Bill until he could look after.ok himself. It was a hot summer in 1918, when me and Fred married. He became a coal mine. I was carrying my first baby boy Sam. Me and Fred were looking forward to the future together, then a couple years later I had Richard, he was 10Ibs born, his hair was white blond as snow and bright blue eyes. When he got to six months old, he couldn’t stop smiling and laughing. We tried our hardest to give our children the best childhood we could, which we would anyway but mainly because neither or Fred’s childhood was very good. Matthew was born in 1925, he had very thick jet black hair, he looked like as if he came out of the coal mines with his Father, when I had him. He was a very greedy little boy. In school he made paper out of machete. Painted it green and red, he licked the paint as he pulled a funny face. We were all laughing and crying at the same time. Life was so happy for all of us until Fred died twelve months later in a mining accident. There was an explosion as his body was found in the pits. I married Arthur but no was I doing the same to my children what my Mum did to me, having me orphanage because my Father died and she married Hi my name is Sam Brown Alice and Fred’s son. In the end Mum struggling to cope with out Dad, it was awful, as I was the eldest, I raised my brothers Richard and Matthew, Richard raised Matthew when Richard was fourteen, when I joined the army at eighteen. When I came out the army at twenty one, I unexpectedly met the I fell in love with to be my wife her name was Lilly. Me and Lilly fell in love on the Yorkshire Moors where we met, then she came to Nottingham to train as a nurse in the Second World War. She moved into my late Mother’s house while I was at war looking after my young brothers Richard and Matthew. she had raised her brothers and sisters too when Ron and Elise had died when Lilly was twelve. Lilly was born and bred Yorkshire. Lilly never went to school, she was educated at home and she went down the mines when she was five years old. At age of seven she was sweeping the chimneys and sixteen till eighteen she was a kitchen maid. Lilly’s brother Bob married a lady who was also named Lilly, he was the last of their family to marry after, Lilly’s uncle Richard died who was Lilly Mum Ellie’s brother. Sooner the war was over in 1945, me and Lilly married. I was son Tim, three daughters, Caroline, Katie and Hana. Alice Brown daughter of Anne Brown, real Father known, married to Anne Brown died before Alice’s youngest brother Tom’s birth, then he wasn’t spoken about as she was meeting Harry. Henry Anne’s bother, unknown parents, Henry was the third of a family of ten, Anne was the eldest. Alice’s sisters Catherine and Elizabeth. Arthur was Anne’s second husband Alice’s stepfather. Alice married Fred Brown, had Sam, Richard and Matthew. Sam married Lilly Lewis, had Tim, Caroline, Katie and Hana. Lilly’s family, Father Robert Lewis, Mother Mavis Edwards. Lilly had brother named Bob, they were orphaned after her parents’ young death, which happened when she was five years of age as she was sent to the mines then workhouse from there. parents only just turned thirty. Alice’s point of view My Mother Annie was walking through the streets of London, it was a freezing cold stormy winter’s night and she started to be in labor with youngest brother Tom. It was 7.00pm, November 1918. She was dressed in black rags and her hair was like yellow straw. She was calling for help. “ Help”! She didn’t see very clearly who was about as she shone her candle light, bright because it was so dark. Anne was soaked right through with the rain, which was causing the candle light to kept going out. Her brother Henry was riding his pony and trap, he was going so fast, he didn’t see her or hear her calling. “Henry stop”! As the wind was blowing wild, the rain was coming down buckets, Anne was getting more wetter. She was shivering and she was staring a cold, in minutes, my died and gave birth at the same time, as a passer managed to deliver Tom, put him under his black over coat. Lucky his home was just a step away as he took Tom inside and called the doctor. She gave birth on the wet grass. No one knew who my Dad was and Mum never spoke of him, he died when was carry, my step brothers and sisters are Mum’s second Husband Harry’I never knew about me. Harry, who sadly died after Tom was born, before Harry had the chance to see him, how unlucky was that? Tom was so like Harry very laid back sort of a person but as soon as Tom grew up and left home no one heard anything off. Last time I saw Tom, we sadly had a row, over him not giving me enough money to cover his food, which he took very personal. He was eighteen, he huffed and puffed and went to his room, never came down. He was still there when we went to bed but when we got up the next morning, he had gone without a word, none of us saw him since. We got to the point of calling the police, it turned out in the end he was no where to be seen in Nottinghamshire to be seen, we think he may had gone back to London but we decided not to look any further because we didn’t want him to feel forced to come back to us. Me and Fred decided to move ourselves the family to Nottinghamshire because every time I saw Board Street, it remind me of the night my Mum died. Also, Fred’s Mine job was slightly higher wages in Nottinghamshire than it was in London, strangely. Catherine the fourth and Elizabeth was the fifth of the family. I was told from my step brothers and sisters that, Harry was well educated, he was very good as such subjects as psychology, sociology, and others similar. Yet he used to sweep chimneys as a boy, farmed, worked down the mines, factories etc, which a poor way of earning a living. Sam’s point of view. My Uncle Henry told me Mum was raised by his Dad, Uncle Harry who was Mum’s step. No one has ever known who Mum’s real Dad was. Mum never spoke of the man, by a guess he died when Nana Anne was pregnant with Mum. I think Mum told me that Nana Anne was only late teens early twenties when she had Mum. Our Nan never told my Uncles and Aunts that they had a sister who was their Mum’s child too or that she had been married before and he died. Least our Mom was honest with all of us, we all knew our real Father Fred and Dad died. I was ten when my real Dad Fred died and thirteen when Mum married Arthur. Mum had the guts to bring Arthur into the family to join all us, no matter ever would have happened. Arthur wasn’t my best mate and I don’t think of him as Dad but I didn’t dislike him at all. Don’t get me wrong, I miss the person he was even as much as. I miss my Mum. He was easy to get along with. I will be honest to say me and him had as many fall outs if not more as much as me and my Dad did but not bad for me to want him out our lives. Mum met Arthur at a dance when we moved to Nottinghamshire. Lilly was panicking because, it was 7.00pm, she had been cooking and cleaning for hours. Mum was ninety - three at the time, naturally she was starting to get lost and confused with herself, Arthur wasn’t much older either, he was around ninety -seven. However’ she hadn’t been the same for years since she heard about Uncle Tom being born when my Gran was die-ing. Getting to the point, Mum and Arthur had disappeared without a word and we were concerned about their safety. We had not seen them since that morning and dinner was almost ready. Lilly put all meals in the oven to keep hot. Tim: I will take the pony and trap to look for Nan and Arthur. We were all debating with worry. My son Tim didn’t get back till 1.00am but no Mum and Arthur. Suddenly they came back but they didn’t stay long as she kept on going over the past but it was possible not all she could remember correctly. For example her saying she raised her nine brothers and sisters, which wasn’t true. Nan put her into opharnage. Then she would change story by saying she was an opharn