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| My mother as a child with my grandmother in Oldham, Lancashire |
A few days after that photo was taken I returned to Leicester to meet writers' group The Belmont Belles, before sneaking off to look at my old grammar school, Newarke Girls', now a community college. From a distance it looked exactly the same - an elegant building, with a central clock tower, surrounded by an acre of green grass, with a long pathway leading down to the main road.
It was along that path that I walked for the very last time one sunny Friday afternoon in the late 1960s. Three days later I was a trainee reporter on the Lytham St Annes Express in Lancashire. It felt a long way from my Guernsey home.
Meanwhile my two daughters have done their own bit of moving around - one has worked in Australia and the United States, the other travels Europe with her work. She is also a dedicated Derby County Football Club supporter who was born in Lancashire and lives in Yorkshire!
Not to be outdone, my two granddaughters support Leeds United most of the time and Derby County when their father's not looking.
Which brings me back to my mother, who was born in Lancashire in 1926 and went on to marry a Guernseyman when she was just nineteen. She wants to keep the selfie - well - to herself. But here she is ten years ago on her 80th birthday. Happily she's still got plenty to smile about.
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| Happy Birthday Mum |
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| The old Newarke Girls' School, Leicester, as it is today |
