Nanny's Legacy
Jane (Bamford) and Bert Hill c 1954
My nanny - Jane Bamford was my mom's mom. Jane was born in England, in Smallbridge, Rochdale, Lancashire area, July 16, 1892. She married Albert Andrew Hill in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada on November 13, 1923.
Nanny died suddenly of heart failure on November 10, 1955.
There are 5 generations of descendants of Jane Bamford and Albert Hill today (2005).
This quilt is to honour Nanny with squares named for her descendants and their families.
Below the photo, our stories are told.
October 20, 2005 - I consider making the Dear Jane quilt and sign up to the Dear Jane web site digest. I like working on the small blocks - and this looks like a very interesting project. I've seen the project before, just never looked like something I would want to do! Earthly Goods quilter Kim Dalmer is the first to welcome me to the journey! At the October 26 Grad Club meeting, the Dear Jane quilts are on display. That's it - I'm hooked! Not only that, but after seeing Kim's mom's DJ quilt - I know I will be making two - one fairly traditional, one in only two colors.
October 30, 2005 - my first block is completed! With a light brown "tree-like" background fabric, and a golfer's feature fabric - a block is made to honor my Uncle Bill. Among many things - he was a golfer. It is then that I decide I will not use all the names as determined by Brenda P, author of the Dear Jane© quilt book, but will make the quilt to honour my Nanny, Jane Bamford and all her descendants. This Dear Jane© is for you Nanny Jane.
December 2005. It strikes me, the strange timing of deciding to start this journey .... Why would I start this project 50 years - almost to the day, that Nanny passed away??
December 23, 2005. I receive an email from my mom, Janie... with another insight into the life of Nanny Jane.
January 2 & 3, 2006. We are visiting my mom and dad in Parksville BC and I am showing mom the 19 blocks done so far. As we look through Brenda P's Dear Jane© book, mom exclaims "Batchelor Buttons! Those were Nanny's favorite!". And so I learn more about my grandmother... and I ask the cousins if they have any memories....
March 19, 2006. Cousin Bette remembers....
"I
have lots of memories of Nanny and her good ole dog "Butch". My cousin (on
my dad's side) Valerie Knight used to live close to Nanny's house & Val and I would
walk over there unannounced, but Nanny always had time for us. She used to make tea
(we loved getting tea in fancy tea cups & saucers) and made us soda crackers with
lemon curd (came in a jar) on them.
Once we finished our tea and crackers, she always went to the door and told us
"Valerie, I think I hear your mom calling you". We used to giggle all the
way back to Val's house, we loved our visits with Nanny !"
Then my mom really put down some notes!!
"When mom and dad first came to Regina they lived at 820 Retallack Street - where they lived when I was born. We all were members of St. Peter's Church - which is no longer a church - I believe the house is still there.
During this time, mom and dad played bridge with another couple, George and Sadie DeBolt - they were my god parents and were very Scottish. Sadie and mom had met in the hospital when I was born and Sadie also gave birth to a daughter, Madeline. They were friends until mom died. Sadie and George lived on the 9 block Winnipeg Street. Mom, dad, Jessie and I used to walk from Retallack Street to Winnipeg Street to visit them. Dad and mom went dancing every Saturday night with a group of friends. Early Sunday morning Jessie and I would crawl into bed with them and dad would give us each a couple of little black liquorice Sen Sen.
Nanny had great presence of mind. During this time there was rumour of a strangler in the Regina area. As I was told when I got older, nanny went to take something out to the garbage and saw a man standing in the back lane - she did not recognize him so immediately turned to our own back door and hollered out for Dad to watch the kids. - Dad was not home.
At this time there were Green Houses beside us on the north side of our house and mom used to take baking to the Chinese that owned it. (Bing Hong was a name I remember) Many times mom would go to go out the back door and there would be a bag of fresh vegetables sitting in the porch - from the Chinese people.
Christmas was a time when she sent a big package to her relatives in England and, likewise, a big parcel was sent to our family from England. I remember there was never anything in the parcel for me. That was because they never knew I had been born. Mom and dad always provided something extra for me. Bill was born in l928, Margaret in 1930, Jessie in 1932 and I came along in 1933. I think she just got tired of writing them about another one in the family. In later years, Eunice told me mom having just had Jessie was not about to tell her relatives she just had another one. This is probably what prompted them to give me her maiden name as part of my own. She never ever said.
We then moved to 1672 Rae Street and I believe that house is still there. We were not there long. If you have ever been that way, it is just east of Taylor Field and south of the railway tracks. It was around 1939-40, hard times. I remember mom feeding hobos that came off the freights. As long as there was someone in the house with her she would give them a hot meal and send them on their way.
Then we moved to 2040 Wallace Street and became members of St. Matthew's Church on Winnipeg St. It was here that Jessie and I were invited to a birthday party - twins, Dorothy and Lillian Strong. Mom set to and made us new dresses. They turned out lovely but because there was not enough material, we could hardly walk in them the skirts were so tight!! I remember she got mad at us when Jessie and I got the giggles.
We moved to 2176 Edgar Street and continued at St. Matthew's Church. (Today I still carry in my wallet a picture of Nanny and Sadie taken when we lived at this address). We moved to 1435 McIntosh Street in 1942 and that house is still there. (Jessie and I used to have to take the street car all the way to Winnipeg Street and College Avenue once a month to take the rent money to the people that owned the house) We lived at McIntosh Street when my mom inherited what was a good deal of money at that time from her brother Harold in England. That was when I came home from school one day and saw a piano sitting in our living room. Surprise! Surprise!. I was enrolled in piano lessons. I remember we got all new furniture - which Jessie and I grew to hate because every Saturday mom made us polish and shine everything before we could go out to play. At that time we all went to St. Jame's Church on Dewdney Avenue. We also did spring and fall cleaning - everything taken down, washed down, re-polished and put back - took a week. We were in the middle of spring cleaning when our doorbell rang one day and there was this lady who said she was Mrs. Nattrass. She was your Aunt June's mother and she had come all the way across town to visit because she wanted to meet the family June was marrying into and since they had not organized a meeting, she came on her own. I remember mom inviting her in - amongst the mess - and making tea for her and they hit it off real well. The other incident I remember was they lady across the street, a Mrs. Armstead. She had taken an overdose of pills and her daughter and son came running over to get my mom - dad was at work. I remember mom hurrying over, we found out later that mom had made coffee, made Mrs. Armstead drink it and together with the lady's family, they kept her on her feet and walked her up and down until the ambulance came. She came through it OK. (Before mom was married she had been a nurses aid and as I recall, she was always calm in times of crisis - like when I hitched a ride on the back of an open truck and in jumping off tore all the skin off my back, she made no big deal of it but just called the doctor out and did what had to be done to get me better.) Those were also war years and everyone on the block had a father or son or both in one of the services and everyone looked out for one another. I remember when the family next door to the south of us received a telegram that their son had died in the war. Mrs. Burns on the north of us, my mom and Mrs. Cunningham down the street baked and took meals over for a time. My brother Fred was in the Navy throughout the whole of the second world war and although he had leaves to come home we never knew when he was coming because, as he said, he did not want anyone bringing a telegram to our house, he was sure mom would have a heart attack. Instead, he would open the back door and just walk in like he had just been gone an hour. All the while he was in the Navy mom knit and baked and wrote letters sending them off to him throughout his whole time in the Navy.Your Nanny was a very private lady, Lez. She never told anyone her business and she never asked anyone theirs. This was a good time for us. Dad had a good job at the RCMP barracks in the engine room, we had a nice home and Eunice and Bill were both working as well. I remember going on the street car one Saturday morning with mom as I was to get new shoes - baby dolls ( not every kid in the class had parents who could afford them.) There were 3 girls on the street car from my class and they said Hi to me and asked if I was going to get my new shoes. I never got them. My mom said - you do not tell other people your business and you do not discuss what you have or are getting. I remember one of mom's lady friends telling me after mom had passed away that my mother was a very honest, private person. She said you never knew if Jane had $100.00 in her purse or .10cents.
In 1948, dad took a job in North Battleford and mom refused to move from Regina. We moved, instead, to 1065 Winnipeg Street, not a very nice place. Mom went to work at the Co-op Creamery with two other of her bingo friends. They cleaned offices from 5:00 pm to 7:00pm, 5 days a week. She loved the independence and the pocket money for Bingo. Dad came home once a month and this is where we lived at the time that your dad and I got married. It was in this house that she passed away. The house has been gone for some years. Nanny was buried from St. Matthew's Church. Nanny had a few codes that she tried to instill in each of us and I know that she was the one out of all of us that lived up to them the best.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be.
To thine own self be true.
Pick up after yourself.
Live and let live.
Don't expect others to do what you won't do yourself.
Admit it when you have done wrong and take your punishment.
One time when your Uncle Bill was an unruly teenager the police called one night and told Nanny that they had him in jail for fighting and Nanny told them to keep him there. That was Nanny's way. Nanny knew all of her children well. Their attributes and their short-comings. She had each of us pegged and not much got by her. And your dad complains because he had to move so much when he was a kid. Hey, that was the name of the game in our growing up days. No one had anything and your home was sold out from under you many times so you moved on and found another. Some families in the 40's and 50's lived in a 4 room house with 8 - 12 kids. Looking back, life was good. Just a little insight Lez."
Hugs and Love to everyone.
MOM
March 20 - Bette remembers more....
"This is terrific!
Your mom never mentioned Butch, Nanny's dog, but I sure remember him!
I remember the names, Mr. & Mrs. DeBolt, in fact I think it was a DeBolt who had found Nanny after her fatal heart attack. The name Freddie DeBolt comes to mind. Nanny did love her Bingo - I even remember going to bingo with her and mom and I couldn't have been very old, as I was just 10 when she passed away. Nanny used to call it the "Oh Shit Game", 'cause one person yelled "bingo" and all the rest said "oh, shit!" .
She used to come to our house for Sunday dinner, almost every week, or at least it seemed to me it was every week.
She's bring her crocheting with her, sit and smoke her cigarettes with the butt hanging out of her mouth, crochet and talk to mom at the same time. We went to her house fairly often as well, and I remember she made Yorkshire pudding in one pan and cut it into squares to have with our roast beef, (today it's usually done in muffin tins individually, but I liked it her way). I still have a sweet little teacup and saucer that she gave me when I was about 8 years old, and I have her watch which Grampa gave me when she died. I keep it in a jewellery box with a picture of her!"
March 20, 2006. Mom continues:
"Butch was my dog, not Nanny's. Fred brought him home to me in his telegraph hat when he worked for the CN Telegraphs. I remember Butch broke his leg and my dad set it and put it in a splint. Butch recovered beautifully but always had a crooked leg. Butch lived with us until I was married. He then stayed with Nanny (this is probably what Betty remembers) Eventually he was hit by a car and was killed. Butch was right out of Disneyland. He was the Tramp in Lady and the Tramp. He lived to be 13 years old, the same age Peppi was when he died. (Peppi was a miniature poodle that Lee and I gave to them the year we got married.)
Our neighbours on Winnipeg street were Phyllis and Pete Pasklar. Your dad and I used to babysit their kids. They were about 20 years older than dad and I and Pete played in a band Saturday nights. We had our wedding reception at Phyllis and Pete's. It was Phyllis who found Nanny. They used to have coffee in the mornings. Phyllis phoned Imperial Oil to let your dad know.Nanny did enjoy dinners at Eunice and Bill's but I also remember them coming to our house for Sunday dinners a lot. Eunice worked and mom would have them over on Sunday. Freddie Debolt was my god parent's son. Actually, when we grew up, Freddie and Jessie went together for a while but he would have been about 6 years older than her. They always remained friends. He passed away a few years after Jessie did."
Interesting, isn't it?
Hugs, MOM
May 27, 2006. Nanny's Grave
Today is my sister Mary Jane's wedding day. Mary Jane was named after both grandmothers. We dropped the use of Jane many years ago - but cousins and aunts who do not see Mary much still use it! We call her Muhr. Before the group heads out to the farm where the wedding ceremonie will be, mom and I head out to the Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery where Nanny Hill's grave is. A very peaceful setting. The day is very cold, and has been raining - but it stops long enough for us to visit the site.