Despite Elsie's melancholy, she did manage to wish Ethel (whoever that was) a Happy Christmas. The card has nice handwriting and one senses that she had still managed to obtain a reasonable education, despite her deprived origins. My grandmother/Elsie's sister, Alice Livingston (nee Shipton), seemed similarly well schooled. When Elsie died in the early 1960's she was alone and it somehow fell to my mother, who was her niece, and my father, to clear out her house (in Grange Road). I went along too. I was about 10 or 11 but I still remember the place as a treasure trove of old "stuff". I found a small tin which contained nothing except a half eaten biscuit (funnily enough, I seem to recall it was a Lincoln Cream). There was a little note along side it in Elsie's handwriting which explained that the biscuit had been left unfinished by her late child, Alexander, who had died aged 5. This relic was probably 45 years old but it had been lovingly retained by her for all that time. No-one could imagine what anguish she had gone through in her life, losing her brother, her parents and now her only son and yet, here we were, relative strangers, trawling through all those bits and bobs of what was somebody's life. We threw the biscuit away, of course, what else does one do with such a thing? But I think we all felt something of her tragedy, even myself as an 11 year old. On a funnier note, Elsie also had an old fox fur wrap, which I immediately decided I wanted. For some reason, perhaps it was its musty smell, my Mom and Dad denied my request to keep it. I was having none of that, so when we left Grange Road, I decided to secrete the wrap about myself, under my overcoat. On the way home, I asked if I could be dropped off at my Auntie Alice's house, my plan being to hide it there until the heat was off. Later, my parents told me they laughed out loud as I left the car to go into Auntie Alice's house since, unbeknownst to me, the fox's tail was hanging down below my coat for all to see. Fortunately, my determination had impressed them enough to allow me to keep the thing!