Rayner - Reed Wedding
I found ths today when I was sorting out papers from my grandmother's things. My grandmother on my father's side, that is. She passed away in November 2010 but all of her stuff was still in my grandfather's house so this is the first time I've seen a lot of it. This clipping was in a drawer full of her paperwork.
Mother was my age when she got married - 21 years old when she got married in August 1986. They'd known each other since she was seventeen - just seventeen - and then they'd been going out for about three years. It's strange to think of getting married now - I can barely cope with adulting on my own. But she got married with Dad and they lived together for about four or five years before having my brother.
It's nice to see them before they had children, when they were still in love and loving life. Before my dad's affair and his alcoholism and my mother's thyroid illness, that was them. Happy and fun, and loving. They split up when I was seven and then we rarely saw my dad - less so as the years went on until he died in May 2011.
Mother talks about him more now - sharing more about their lives before they had children, stuff like when they moved into the Cottage in Bicester and they renovated it themselves. She told me about the time they pulled the ceiling out of the attic because it was rotten and filthy up there. She'd gone to work as a nurse during the day, leaving my dad (who worked nights on rotation at a printer's) to demolish it. She came back to a filthy bedroom and my dad looking like a coal miner because it was so bad.
All she did was say, "Cup of tea?"
My mother, queen of the dry humour.
Just thought I'd share something of my family that's more positive than usual.