Remembering our first home and the opportunity to teach.

The mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:6

(Each week I try to remember something from my past on the whole it is chronological and in my menu as memories)

During Margaret Thatcher’s time as PM she gave all council tenants the opportunity to buy the properties they were in for a very reasonable price. Some of them built extentions and then sold them on for a good profit. Our house that Mom Dorothy helped us to choose was one of these.

This is what Mum said to me:

” Sandy you need to be in walking distance from a town. You will be lonely when Roy is working.” This was followed by : ” You must have large windows with plenty of light. You are used to Africa and without it you will feel sad. ”

With those two sentences in mind we three found a house.

It was a terraced house with a large extended kitchen and a dining room extended from the lounge. Upstairs two double rooms with a box room. I came back from Shelly’s wedding in the April and we moved in, in June. During those months we spent weekends up north. We went to auctions and bought a sad looking Edwardian gentleman’s and lady’s nursing chair ( we still have these chairs now professionally covered in green velvet) as well as a horse hair filled sofa with a drop arm so you could lie on it (like a greek god eating grapes) that Roy and Mum worked on to restore and cover in gold rose embossed material. The material was bought at Barnsley market where the cloth making factories were. (Mum and Roy must have worked round the faults). I helped take things apart and clean the wood, Mum sewed and Roy did all the stretching of the material over the frames and tapping of nails, of which there was a lot. So when we moved we had these ready for our new home.

I was still to find a job but we had joined a Bible study group that met regularly and unbeknown to me the lady leading it with her husband was head of a School, teaching English to foreign students. At the time the phone rang I was doing temporary office work and was going for an interview the next day to be taken on permanently. This kind lady then said: ” Sandy , could you help me a little? I need someone to teach one hour a week.”

I said : ” No” . Then gave the reason.

I then spoke to Roy and he said : ” Think again Sandy! This is an opportunity to teach!!”

We prayed , I phoned and took the one hour a week..

Roy went to work in Windsor and what I wanted was a bicycle. Mum Dorothy lent me the money and I paid her back. I was teaching young people my own age. I was challenged but it was only one hour once a week.

I did my very best!

Thank you for reading my post. It felt so close in time as I wrote, that it was an absolute pleasure. Sandy 🙂