Life was good in 1980. My darling daughter was a delight. She loved animals and spent hours ‘chatting to’ ‘Amna’ (Amber) through the garden fence. Our neighbours Ken and Kaye doted on Jo and they were for ever presenting us with gifts from their allotment. Ken advised Liz on gardening and armed with a new manual my darling wife started to create. It was lovely. In the middle was a ‘lawn’, my first. It was postage stamp in size. Somehow we got to know a local ‘fixer’. he was 14 or 15 years of age and from time to time he would knock on the door with some ‘special offer’. I suppose I should have asked him his ‘sources’ but I didn’t as he was a delightful lad. One day he knocked on the door. ‘I have just the thing for you’ he said, ‘a petrol mower’. Someone I know wants rid of it and you can have it for £8? or something silly. Of course I bought it. It was way too big for our lawn but that did not stop me trying. One day I managed to mow some of Liz’s blooms, which was a bad thing. The mower was put in the shed but my love of all things related to grass and lawns had been born.
As the grandson of a coal miner I had a many qualifications to judge the unattractive side of capitalism. Many of the people on The Stock Exchange were wonderful but many were not and I often saw examples of corruption and cheating and it deeply troubled me. There were ‘rings’ of investors in place who would buy shares for themselves and fellow cheats and then somehow persuade a financial journalist to write a bullish article in the paper. Probably the journalist was one of the ring. I could have exposed any number of these groups but I was advised against it.
I would often brood about my lot in life considering the nature of my business and the fact that by now I was beginning to have, what was for me anyway, some serious savings and luxuries. We had by this time bought a Volvo Estate car. It was super luxurious and it purred along. One day Kay asked me in for a cuppa. She was a volunteer worker at the local ‘Multi Sclerosis Residential Care Home’. She told me that due to retirement a vacancy had arisen for an ambulance driver to take residents to various social functions around North London. In truth I have always been very squeamish about all things medical and like many, I have discovered, I am deeply troubled by people in wheelchairs. I did not think it at all a good idea but I said yes.
For the next few years, twice a week, I would drive the ambulance with its lifting tailgate. I would wheel the patients in and out-not sure I ever had a health and safety lecture. I would take them to various venues, sit around waiting for a couple of hours, then return them to the ‘home.’ I watched many decline, some ‘disappeared’, but all were so grateful and as I became more comfortable i would lead the singing on the way back home. It gave me a sense of perspective and gratitude. the Marie Foster Home had a huge impact on me in many ways. thank you Kaye for the introduction.Liz and I had taken to running and we would take it in turns to go off and run around the local area in the evenings, the other one would look after our daughter. One day an idea came to us after a glass of wine-many ideas have arrived via that route! We decided to answer the call of a fund raising initiative for a new ambulance for the home. After sleeping on the pavement in a queue we both got places in The London Marathon and we lined up together at the start and both completed the course achieving our funding goal thanks to the support of many kind friends. It was to be our first official athletic event together. The first of many.
Liz and I found a house right on the edge of London in the beautiful suburb of Arkly. It was just fabulous. Double Fronted, amazing proportions a view to fields from the rear. It was a complete redo but we were both so excited when we put in what we thought was a full offer. The deal appeared to be going through and we easily sold our house again just about double;ing our money. Close to the day of exchange of contracts all went quiet. AT the last minute we got a call, no deal, we had been gazumped. We were really disappointed but looking back I can see that maybe there was a reason for the event. I cannot think that if we had bought that house that we would have ever wanted to leave it such was its appeal and just maybe the adventures that followed in our life would not have happened. I wonder what the alternative route might have been?
Instead we bough a huge Edwardian semi detached house in High Barnet with a rear balcony with views down over London. It was in ruth a magnificent house but again complete redo. It had no central heating such that when we moved in it was freezing and the building society had held back a portion of the mortgage loan until we had effected some particular repairs. The Halifax building society had not bargained for a woman with the wiles of Liz Elliott. Back in the day ankle length over coats were the fashion and Liz had a grey herringbone one tat was very smart. She placed a series of pillows down her front secured with a belt and answered the front door to the building society officer with her impossible beautiful blond daughter sort of held out front. ‘It is very cold in here’ she said. We are trying to get things fixed but in my condition…’ The man produced a form and signed it and was gone. the central heating was installed two weeks later. However Liz’s bump was in fact a portent of more good news as soon we learned of the impending arrival of our second child. We really had to geta move on as the house was large. Jo, bless her, would sit on paint pots and cast to me when I was working. We made built in wardrobes, tiled bathrooms and installed a superb MFI kitchen that we bought in one of their sales at a knock down price. It was all coming together and we bought our first proper car a BMW.
Tales of a Life Well Lived 