E went to PO. Pension rose to £16. E went to NN canteen BWTA. Caroline came for dinner.
Notes
Grandma Was Keeping the Diary
Grandad was unwell at this time having had a stroke in early April, see Chapter 100. Based on handwriting, I think grandma mainly kept his diary for him between 24 April and 27 August. Mostly, she used grandad’s voice. She referred to herself in the third person and grandad in the first person. So, E in this entry refers to grandma Ethel May Cecilia Parkin.
Old Age Pension
PO stands for Post Office. Grandma and grandad collected their pension from there on a weekly basis, I believe. This was the practice until relatively recently when pensions were paid directly to bank accounts. Their joint pension had risen from £12.50 to the £16 noted here, see Chapter 104.
Grandma Volunteered at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital
NN stands for Norfolk and Norwich and refers to Norwich’s main hospital. Grandma volunteered in the canteen there, see Chapter 100. She did go on a Monday once or twice per month but I am not sure why she would have recorded this and then crossed it out unless she was making entries some time later.
BWTA
BWTA refers to the British Women’s Temperance Association in which grandma was active, see Chapter 107. The association became the White Ribbon Association, see Chapter 69, and there is a good account of their history on their website.
Caroline Douglas
Caroline refers to Caroline Douglas who lived next-door to grandma and grandad at 168 Drayton High Road. She was a year older than my sister Liz so would have been ten at this point. I think this reference to dinner probably relates to a midday meal. It was certainly grandma and grandad’s practice to refer to dinner and tea, rather than lunch and dinner, although this practice did change over time with some references to lunch coming into the diaries from the early sixties, see Chapter 92.
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