Learning from the past
Created | Updated Jan 3, 2007
NANA PICKLES
Mary Elizabeth called herself Lorna because she didn’t like being called Lizzie.
After she had read Lorna Doone she wanted to be called Lorna.
Her parents were the Mottramos which was a double act based in Liverpool.
Marie Elizabeth was a pianist/flautist/comedienne/actress (musical)
My mother always thought her Nana was a sardine. This was nothing to do with her being a fish, because indeed (!) she wasn’t a fish.
Her birthday was in October.
Her childhood was spent in Liverpool but there is little known about it.
Blanche, Beatrice, Westminster, Lorna, were their children (there were 1, perhaps 2 boys who died in infancy, this is just a hazy memory and might not be quite true).
She was a wonderful pianist, sometimes she would play a pop tune for M having only heard the little girl sing it once. She was also a brilliant sight-reader. Her family, the Redferns, were a musical family.
Ted Redfern was a famous (perhaps he played obligatos to Tetraccini, but that is only in the back of M’s head to do with Australia) flautist. There were others but M can’t remember them.
She was blind for some years before she died but she still played the piano because she memorized all her music (especially Chopin) when she knew she was going blind.
M had various piano teachers but when her grandmother died she stopped playing the piano
a]because she was so sad that her grandmother had died
b] it gave her a great excuse not to practise, especially after teachers had rapped her knuckles
c] her grandfather would not let anyone touch ‘her’ piano.
She could have practised when he was out. (It was an excuse!)
Thomas Ferguson Mottram.
Thomas was comedian and musician. He played the piccolo, saxophone
From the eyes of a child he was sometimes very kind and sometimes very strict (this was in the 1930’s).
He was a natural comedian. He taught his granddaughter how to spell, she remembers sitting on his lap.
One day he asked her to spell ‘frock’ after a lot of thought, little M spelt ‘D-R-E-S-S’. She was so small when this happened and she remembers it so vividly, so clearly as if it were yesterday.
She can describe the room.
He hugged her, laughed and said:
“You haven’t got it right, but you haven’t got it wrong!”
He explained why she was right and why she was wrong at the same time.
Alec Thompson (Alec Kendall)
Wrote 21 today. I’m shy Marie Ellen I’m shy.
ChiKiSpirit©
Mary Elizabeth called herself Lorna because she didn’t like being called Lizzie.
After she had read Lorna Doone she wanted to be called Lorna.
Her parents were the Mottramos which was a double act based in Liverpool.
Marie Elizabeth was a pianist/flautist/comedienne/actress (musical)
My mother always thought her Nana was a sardine. This was nothing to do with her being a fish, because indeed (!) she wasn’t a fish.
Her birthday was in October.
Her childhood was spent in Liverpool but there is little known about it.
Blanche, Beatrice, Westminster, Lorna, were their children (there were 1, perhaps 2 boys who died in infancy, this is just a hazy memory and might not be quite true).
She was a wonderful pianist, sometimes she would play a pop tune for M having only heard the little girl sing it once. She was also a brilliant sight-reader. Her family, the Redferns, were a musical family.
Ted Redfern was a famous (perhaps he played obligatos to Tetraccini, but that is only in the back of M’s head to do with Australia) flautist. There were others but M can’t remember them.
She was blind for some years before she died but she still played the piano because she memorized all her music (especially Chopin) when she knew she was going blind.
M had various piano teachers but when her grandmother died she stopped playing the piano
a]because she was so sad that her grandmother had died
b] it gave her a great excuse not to practise, especially after teachers had rapped her knuckles
c] her grandfather would not let anyone touch ‘her’ piano.
She could have practised when he was out. (It was an excuse!)
Thomas Ferguson Mottram.
Thomas was comedian and musician. He played the piccolo, saxophone
From the eyes of a child he was sometimes very kind and sometimes very strict (this was in the 1930’s).
He was a natural comedian. He taught his granddaughter how to spell, she remembers sitting on his lap.
One day he asked her to spell ‘frock’ after a lot of thought, little M spelt ‘D-R-E-S-S’. She was so small when this happened and she remembers it so vividly, so clearly as if it were yesterday.
She can describe the room.
He hugged her, laughed and said:
“You haven’t got it right, but you haven’t got it wrong!”
He explained why she was right and why she was wrong at the same time.
Alec Thompson (Alec Kendall)
Wrote 21 today. I’m shy Marie Ellen I’m shy.
ChiKiSpirit©
