001 - Heaven
I'm around 5 or 6. I'm at Nanny and Grandad's, in their back room, which is where they are all the time. It smells yummy, because Nanny's cooking always smells good. She makes Sunday dinners, and bramble pie with the brambles from the garden, and my favourite, chips from the chip pan (Mummy won't have a chip pan because she burnt herself badly once, so they're a special treat). The food is always better than the drinks, because Nanny buys Vimto and Dandelion and Burdock from the milkman for the kids, and I don't like them, so I drink milky tea in a little plasticy cup instead.
Nan is sat in her chair next to the kitchen, and Grandad is in his next to the cabinet where our money boxes are, where I put my pound pocket money in my silver teddy once a week. They never swap chairs, and normally I sit on Grandads knee, but he tickled me and told me I had a bony bum, so I'm sat on the floor next to Nanny instead. I want to know what happens when you die. Nanny says you go to Heaven, but what is Heaven like? And Nanny says that Heaven is whatever you want to be, for every person, and so what is your Heaven like, Sammy-antha? And I say my Heaven is a giant fun fair, where everything is free, because normal fairs cost a lot of money and you only get a few tokens each. And Mummy lets me have a whole stick of candyfloss to myself, all the time, and I don't have to share with the twins. And there is no queue for the bumper cars, or the waltzers! You just walk straight on. There is a big wheel, but it's not a scary big wheel, it feels really safe, so that's okay. And it's always sunny, but not too hot because I don't like that because my skin gets burnt. And all my family and my friends are there, and we just play on the funfair, all day everyday. My Heaven is better than EVERYONE else's.
(Twenty-odd years later, Supernatural told me that Heaven was made up of your happiest memories. I thought of Nan, and my heart ached for the whole day. This seemed like an appropriate place to start thinking about 100 memories. They won't all be happy, but they will all be me.)
Nan is sat in her chair next to the kitchen, and Grandad is in his next to the cabinet where our money boxes are, where I put my pound pocket money in my silver teddy once a week. They never swap chairs, and normally I sit on Grandads knee, but he tickled me and told me I had a bony bum, so I'm sat on the floor next to Nanny instead. I want to know what happens when you die. Nanny says you go to Heaven, but what is Heaven like? And Nanny says that Heaven is whatever you want to be, for every person, and so what is your Heaven like, Sammy-antha? And I say my Heaven is a giant fun fair, where everything is free, because normal fairs cost a lot of money and you only get a few tokens each. And Mummy lets me have a whole stick of candyfloss to myself, all the time, and I don't have to share with the twins. And there is no queue for the bumper cars, or the waltzers! You just walk straight on. There is a big wheel, but it's not a scary big wheel, it feels really safe, so that's okay. And it's always sunny, but not too hot because I don't like that because my skin gets burnt. And all my family and my friends are there, and we just play on the funfair, all day everyday. My Heaven is better than EVERYONE else's.
(Twenty-odd years later, Supernatural told me that Heaven was made up of your happiest memories. I thought of Nan, and my heart ached for the whole day. This seemed like an appropriate place to start thinking about 100 memories. They won't all be happy, but they will all be me.)