"Our aunt Marion was good at planting trees. Her garden had nettles and bindweed choking the currant bushes, but give her a spade and she would plant a tree. The trainee from the local paper would click his camera, Aunt Marion would give a cheery smile and plunge the spade into the hole, prepared, if she was lucky, by the parks department, while her shoes filled with soil and the lady mayoress's chain swung from her neck. Auntie wore a tailored costume on these occasions and her little fox fur. Her hat had a jaunty feather and her shoes had heels - not very high, but too high for struggling across the sodden ground. Aunt Marion excelled at unveiling plaques and cutting tapes. In the newspaper cuttings, she beamed attentively at the new concrete foyer, the building named after a writer or politician who had visited the town on his way to somewhere else. She bent encouragingly to take flowers from the nervous small child, who then rushed pell-mell to hide behind Mummy’s skirt. Auntie's children, our cousins Brenda and David, spent a lot of time at our house, eating baked beans and watching TV. Brenda told tales and David's nose ran a lot. Auntie made people feel at ease. She always found the right phrase - "Have you come far?" "You must be so proud". She was like that at home, as well. When Uncle Bill returned from the club, she would always say, "Would you like a nice cup of tea?", never "What time do you call this?" or "How much have you had to drink?". They were married for forty-one years, all through the muckraking by the "Evening Express" when that little slut in Bill's office accused him of sexual harassment. Auntie had a way of rising above all that. Aunt Marion didn't have a career, as such. She worked in the office at Gorton and Bugby's, but of course all that had to stop when Uncle Bill got his seat on the council. Auntie needed to support him in doing what she called his "civic duty". She was always rushing from coffee mornings to ladies' luncheons to rummage sales - not to mention tirelessly knocking on doors at election time. Behind every great man, there is a good woman. For Uncle Bill, that woman was our auntie. Have you got all the information you need, vicar? That should strike just the right note. Did you know that the new recreation ground is going to be named after Uncle Bill? Auntie would have been so thrilled. Even after the divorce, she kept going through the cuttings, remembering. The album was next to the bottle of pills, when she was found. Still, Bill will be at the opening with his new wife, Samantha. They are going to plant a tree." |
