Christine's 50th

                               I sifted through my complicated relationship wth my dad a long time ago and all the crap has flown by the wayside. His laugh, his smile, his farts, his beer, his love of games and reading and learning and his ability to be himself in front of friends or royalty are the things I hold on to. My mom was a different story, for whatever reasons, I never felt that she approved of me or anything I did and it took a lot of work over the years, especially her last years, to just love her the way she was and accept that she did the best she could by me. In many ways she was a woman ahead of her time and I do believe that a lot of my own strength comes from my mom and my Gramma Dot. William Hubert Brown, born January 24, 1934 to Ruth Lillian Brown and Hubert Brown, the oldest of five siblings from two different fathers. My dad never knew his Dad. Hubert Brown disappeared early on leav...

I want to make sure that you all know a little about the background of our family, so no real story in this one. Nanny’s family lived at 110 Higham Road in Tottenham, which is a district in Haringey, a borough in North London. My Mom’s grandfather worked for the city of London, and her Dad Percy Howard followed in his footsteps as a deputy superintendent of roads and sewers from 1904-1946.   As far as I know, her Mother Florence (Flossie) didn’t have a job outside of the home. They all lived in London during the German Blitz of WWII. Mom mentioned several times about having to go down to the air raid shelters when the Germans bombed London.                                  Nanny was an only child who was very close to her parents. She said she was an average student who had planned on doing secretarial work as an occupation. She wasn’t that interested in sports but as you all   know she was ve...