Aunts, Uncles and Cousins

My mother’s birth name was Evelyn Maud Finch. She hated her middle name. We would tease her by singing “Come into the garden Maud”.

Her parents were Francis Finch and Kate Ames.

Kate, my maternal grandmother died six months after my birth, and Francis died when I was less than two years old.

Mum had one sister, Kate, who died at a young age of what was called “lockjaw” (tetanus?).

There were six brothers. John, Harold, Reg, Fred, Wally and Albert.

I met my Uncle John only once. He was a mortician. He lived in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, and came to Bristol for the one family reunion which Mum organised. Uncle John and his wife (whose name I cannot remember) had one child, my cousin Margaret.

Harold was a cobbler. I knew him quite well, as well as his wife my Auntie Doll. They had two children, my cousins John and Shelia.

Reg was married to a fairly unkind woman, my Aunt Dorothy. They were childless, but “fostered” many children with a harshness that bordered on cruelty.

Uncle Fred and his wife Auntie Phyll lived nearby. He claimed to be an accountant, but was simply a book-keeper. Uncle Fred was known for his temper tantrums, and when I was a young boy and got into a temper, my parents would call me “Freddie”. Fred and Phyll had one daughter, my cousin Rosemary.

Uncle Wally (Walter Charles - hence “W.C” behind his back) also lived nearby with my Auntie Irene. Wally had various careers, including being an insurance agent (the old door-to-door, collect each week kind), a traffic warden, and a rent collector for the City.

Wally and Irene had four children, Alan, Janet, Kate and Christopher.

Uncle Albert was killed in Normandy in August 1944, when I was three months old. My brother Martyn and I took Mum to see her brother’s grave in Bayeux, France in September 1994 - 50 years after his death.

So I had eight first cousins.

I cannot remember if I ever met Cousin Margaret.

I met Cousin John a few times when I was young, but he was already “growed up”. Cousin Sheila became very close to our family. We adored her but sadly she died of cancer when she was in her late 40’s or early 50’s.

Cousin Rosemary died when she was in her early twenties. She was a beautiful stylish young woman, but succumbed to Hodgkinson’s disease (leukaemia).

Best of all I knew my cousins, Alan, Janet, Kate and Chris.

Alan moved to Holland many years ago, and died there (in his fifties) two years ago.

Cousin Kate lives in Spain, and I have not seen her in years.

Cousin Chris is a Methodist lay preacher. He has visited me twice in the United States.

Cousin Janet lives in Bristol with her partner Steve. They have been using a time share on Longboat Key, near here, for five years. Little did I know when I moved to SRQ that Janet and Steve would be here each year. Last year I cooked them a Thanksgiving dinner, and tonight they treated me to a great steak in an SRQ restaurant.

We chatted “family”, and that’s why I have been reminded of my mother’s siblings, and of my cousins.

Reg was the last to die of those siblings. Only Auntie Irene (my aunt by marriage) yet lives. That’s cool, cos she always was my favourite Aunt. She still lives in Bristol.

Dad was an only child so there are no cousins on his side of the family.