When my mother was about 15, her mother got a lodger. His name was Albert Stanley Andreae. My mother got on fairly well with Alf, and spent time fooling around with him in his room. It was innocent fooling around. However one time when my mother’s period was late, her mother asked, “have you been fooling around with Alf?” and in innocence my mother said “yes”. In fact the fooling around was merely fooling around and nothing more. So my grandmother leapt to the conclusion that my mother had been “fooling around” in the biblical sense and was pregnant. She immediately demanded that Alf marry her. God only knows what Alf thought of all this, because he had not been doing anything with my mother. My mother’s innocence ended on their wedding day, and she described the wedding night as “rape” and swore that any of her daughters would not suffer the same fate of not knowing about sex. Her mother was furious when my mother‘s period arrived a few days later.
In due course, and within a year, my mother had a baby: my half brother Ron. He was named Ronald Edwin Andreae, after his uncle Ron, my mother’s brother. The birth was hard, the baby large, and my mother, not being well from years of illness, did not recover easily.
It appears Alf was not a particularly good husband. He did not work and spent most of his time doing nothing.
Soon after the birth Alf Andreae left – deserting my mother and the baby. It appears that he had borrowed a large sum of money from his mother-in-law, which she then demanded from my mother. My mother would have to go to work to pay for her board and her son’s, and to pay back the money that Alf had borrowed. Gwen would mind the boy.
And my mother did go back to work and did pay back all the money owed. She worked as a milliner and when her day was finished at work she came home to more work – she had to care for her son, and had household chores as well – for example she ironed the household’s clothes as well as hers and Ron’s.
Over time Ron stopped calling his mother Mummy and starting to call Gwen Mummy. This was to have significance later on.
My mother had to wait for 5 years before she could sue for divorce on the grounds of desertion – that was the law at the time. In the meantime she tried to live a normal a life as possible. Recall that she was a mother and working girl at 16. It must have been hard for her, and lonely as well – her mother was not forgiving in any way.
My mother was 18, and attending a dance at Kingsgrove, when she met my father. She danced with him and then left as she had arranged. She was taken with him, but had to get home.
In due course, and within a year, my mother had a baby: my half brother Ron. He was named Ronald Edwin Andreae, after his uncle Ron, my mother’s brother. The birth was hard, the baby large, and my mother, not being well from years of illness, did not recover easily.
It appears Alf was not a particularly good husband. He did not work and spent most of his time doing nothing.
Soon after the birth Alf Andreae left – deserting my mother and the baby. It appears that he had borrowed a large sum of money from his mother-in-law, which she then demanded from my mother. My mother would have to go to work to pay for her board and her son’s, and to pay back the money that Alf had borrowed. Gwen would mind the boy.
And my mother did go back to work and did pay back all the money owed. She worked as a milliner and when her day was finished at work she came home to more work – she had to care for her son, and had household chores as well – for example she ironed the household’s clothes as well as hers and Ron’s.
Over time Ron stopped calling his mother Mummy and starting to call Gwen Mummy. This was to have significance later on.
My mother had to wait for 5 years before she could sue for divorce on the grounds of desertion – that was the law at the time. In the meantime she tried to live a normal a life as possible. Recall that she was a mother and working girl at 16. It must have been hard for her, and lonely as well – her mother was not forgiving in any way.
My mother was 18, and attending a dance at Kingsgrove, when she met my father. She danced with him and then left as she had arranged. She was taken with him, but had to get home.
The first photo is of my mother with Ron, then aged about 4, and the second photo is of Ron aged about 18 months
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