June Phil

My usual monthly roundup of events this month  has been dominated by Daphne’s funeral and FA affairs.  This month is probably the most stressful month of my entire life, mainly because of our friend the FA and his little greedy helper.  It has been made more stressful because of Sue’s situation unfolding.  Her situation is infinitely worse than our problems with greedy people; lets get things into perspective.  The living are far more important than the dead or their money.

I start this month with a picture of me when I was very little and presumably staying for the first time with Daphne at her house.  No wonder I turned out so weird; look how they used to dress me! 

 I found it while we were looking through old photo’s so as to make some photo cards for Daphne’s funeral reception both older black and white.

And newer coloured ones.

Claire, my Mum and I stopped at the local Travel Lodge the night before so I could practice my speech. 

 This is Daphne’s house.  Oh sorry, her Financial Advisors wife's house that Daphne had allegedly never met. 

 Steve came back from 3 weeks in Korea and Thailand which was great as it enabled me to forget things temporarily. 

 I managed to get the ramp erected on mums caravan to make it easier for them to stay.

 Harriet sent me a lovely card for Fathers day but I think that we have both changed quite a lot since this was taken in Florida.  Harriet once told me that I was her favorite uncle just like Daphne was my favorite aunt.


Daphne's Funeral Speech.

For those of you that don’t know me, I am Daphne’s cousin.  Well actually, my mum was Daphne’s cousin, so that technically makes me her second cousin.  Even so, I always thought of her as my Aunt.  When my mum’s father died on the day of her 9th birthday, she went to live with Daphne’s mum and dad in Hersham.  She must have stayed there a while because my mum went to school with Daphne until she was evacuated during the war where she went to stay with one of my grandmothers sisters in Lincolnshire. 

 My mum eventually married and when I was born, and my mum came out of hospital, Daphne took 2 weeks vacation and came to stay to help my mum.  Daphne once told me that neither of them had a clue about looking after babies but somehow I had survived.  This wasn’t an easy task, as we rented a house without electricity or gas.  Neither did we have running water so they had to draw water from the well outside and start a fire before they even had hot water to wash with.  Daphne also brought with her a gift for me, the teddy bear that I cherished throughout my childhood.  She also started a bank account in my name with the Halifax where she put in half a crown a week that I could use once I became 18 years old.  It doesn’t sound much now, being just 12.5 pence but it helped go towards the deposit for my first house when I was in my 20’s.

Daphne had always been a little on the bossy side, but never to me.  I used to look forward to my annual weeks holiday with her, once she took me to the science museum and was the first one to diagnose me as being red/green colour blind.  Another time to the natural history museum where, she later told me, that she could hardly drag me away from the bones of dead mice teeth which seemed to fascinated me so much.  She also took me to Madam Tussaud's, the planetarium, london zoo and a place that I cant remember but we fed dear.

To me Daphne was the cleverest person that I knew because she was the only one able to answer all my stupid questions.  I used to save them up for when I went down to stay.  I remember one question that I asked her.  I couldn’t understand why older things like fossils were always buried deep underground; the oldest being buried the deepest.  Over time it must mean that the earth was slowly getting larger?  She immediately answered that the dust was making the earth larger but also that the earth was slowly cooling and when things cool they contract, so overall the earth was staying about the same size.  This still seems like a satisfactory answer to me now.

When I was about 14 Daphne was to get married to Les Faulkner, her late husband and I was to be an usher.  My dad was to be her wedding driver and we tied ribbon to the front of his triumph 2000.  I remember feeling at the time that Les was far too old to marry my aunt appearing to me about the same age as her father, my uncle Arthur.  Daphne adored him and he soon settled in to become part of my extended family.  Over the years they visited many countries together, all over the world, Mexico and Bali being just two.  She also visited another of our cousins Joyce who was a missionary in Zimbabwe at the time.  I remember when it was her parents golden wedding, she paid for an expensive holiday for them in Norway.

It might seem from these exotic holidays that Daphne was a bit of a spend thrift, but she was far from it making every penny count.  Being brought up in the war years meant that, even if you had money you couldn't buy anything, so it was necessary to save and conserve things unlike todays throw away society.  She never believed in the best before date system and became a little notorious for keeping out of date goods.  Although I wouldn't like to follow her example, she was probably right because she never seemed to get ill from eating any of them.

Daphne never had any of her own biological children but always tried to help less fortunate ones.  Many times when she took me on trips, we would pick up someone or other from her local orphanage.  In later life she also looked after foreign students on their visits over here.  She also had many pen pals all over the world.  Lets not mourn her death but celebrate the life of Daphne Faulkner, my second cousin but also my favorite Aunt.