Audrey

A woman for all seasons

I suppose I first became aware of Audrey about 1940, when she would have
been 24 years old, and I would like to tell you a little bit about this remarkable
woman who went on to bring up 4 children of her own during and after the 2 nd.
World war
Audrey was born in Leadgate, County Durham, north east England on 28th. July
1916, to John Morgan Robinson and Marion Robinson and had 2 older sisters,
Olive and Isobel who all resided at 455 Bradley Square, Leadgate , her father,
John, had his own painting and decorating business.
Barely a year after her birth, her father was killed in the fighting near the
French/Belgian border and is buried in Lijesenthoek Military Cemetery,
Poperinghe, the province of West Flanders close to the French frontier, so she
never really new her father, (but she did manage to visit her fathers grave in
West Flanders, in July of 1969 , with her daughter Margaret, for the first time
and returned again in the 1970`s with Margaret and also her sister Isobel and
her husband Jimmy and also at a later date when she was on a group holiday),
so consequently during these hard times she was brought up by her
grandparents, Matthew and Isobel Anderson of 544 Garden Terrace, Leadgate,
virtually opposite the house she was born in.
Audrey`s mother Marion re-married, a few years later, to an American
serviceman, Albert Postle, (although he was an American serviceman, his family
were originally from Leadgate and had emigrated to the U.S. when Albert was a
young boy so the family's knew each other), and they had another 3 daughters,
Bessie, Flossie and Daphne. There was also a boy in the family whom Audrey
never knew, he was born before her and called Sidney but died from meningitis
not long after his birth.
The family eventually moved from Bradley Square to Wansbeck Grove in
Leadgate and as far as I am aware, lived a quiet life in this small community
and Audrey`s stepfather Albert, became an erector (I would think this means a
scaffolder of sorts ), after the first world war.

The first significant event in Audrey life was when she was 7 years old ,
she was diagnosed with “Creeping Paralysis“ a form of Multiple Sclerosis or
MS. This was obviously not a serious form of the illness as the local Dr., Dr.
Laurent, who was, as Audrey describes him, “a black man”, decided not to send
her to hospital but treat her at home.
As far as I know, she was treated at home for about 2 months by Dr. Laurent,
who obviously knew what he was doing as Audrey has never had any visible
effects or recurrence of the illness and as she will tell you herself, they had to
buy ice from the local shop daily (not to many people had fridges in the 1920`s),
and all her food had to put on ice and during this time of course she could not
attend school so her teacher brought her homework now and again just to keep
her up to date. As mentioned this treatment took approx. 2 months and each
time Dr. Laurent attended, the family had to pay half a crown or two and
sixpence a fair sum of money in those days.
One other thing that Audrey remembers vividly is that Dr. Laurent used to call
her his smiling little girl and one day told her that his wife had just had a
daughter and he was so taken with Audrey that they had called their new born
Audrey, after her.

So after the scare with the creeping paralysis, life went on as usual in the
Robinson/Postle household until first Olive, Audrey`s oldest sister and then
Isobel, left home in their early teens and made the long trek to London to make
their fortune. It was not long afterwards, when she was 14 years old in 1930
that Audrey also decided to join her older sisters in London, so she caught an
overnight bus, quite a journey in 1930 for a 14 year old, made her way to
London to join her sisters and seek work.
It was not long until she found herself working for the Countess Bentinck at 53
Green Street, Park Lane in London and worked her way into “Silver Service”,
in the Bentinck household. During this time, Audrey`s older sister, Isobel,was
going out with Jimmy Mitchell, who was attached to the territorial army in
London.
Jimmy had a brother, David, who was driving trucks between Edinburgh and
London every week, Isobel and Jimmy introduced Audrey to David and they met
now and again when David was in London. It was not until Isobel and Jimmy`s
wedding that David plucked up the courage to ask Audrey for her address and
phone number of where she worked so that he could keep in touch and
eventually he did call her one day and asked her out and although Audrey was
indeed engaged to someone else at the time, she accepted his invitation and they
eventually married in 1939, so it turned out that 2 sisters married 2 brothers and
Audrey and her sister Isobel left London , with their husbands, and moved to
their respective spouses hometown of Edinburgh.
So it was then that I first had contact with Audrey when she had returned to
her hometown of Leadgate for the birth of her first child John Duncan
Mitchell.
After the birth, Audrey returned to Edinburgh and not long after this, her son
contracted double pneumonia and was taken to hospital where his mother was
told that he would not survive through the night but Audrey had other ideas and
sat there with him through the night, watching over him constantly and survive
he did, thanks to the love and attention from his mother, who never believed for
one minute that he was going anywhere but home.
Life for Audrey and David was never going to be easy, times where hard and in
the next few years they had another 2 mouths to feed, (Betty and David), and
David was still driving trucks between Edinburgh and London and was usually
only home once a week,
and I can still remember when he would come home sometimes with live crabs
in his hand, he would stop off in Berwick on Tweed and purchase these crabs
direct from the fishermen and just drop them on the floor of his cabin and then
when he arrived, Audrey would put on the large pot and boil the water and
she would drop the crabs into the boiling water and for the next few days the
family lived on crab pie and crab sandwiches, one of the few luxuries they had.
Audrey had the task of bringing up the children virtually on her own and at that
time they were living in the slums of Edinburgh, Niddrie Mains, in a rented
corporation tenement building, not an ideal upbringing for young children and
to top it all off, Audrey`s husband never kept good health, and as far back
as I can remember was always unwell, but it never stopped him from working all
the hours that he could to provide for his family.
It was during those days at Niddrie Mains that I realised that Audrey was no
ordinary woman, as stated previously we lived in a tenement building, on the
ground floor, and apart from struggling to bring up a young family and look
after her husband when he was home, by having to cook special meals for him ,
above them lived a family that can only be described as unstable and I
remember vividly one evening when Audrey was alone with the children, as
usual, and the upstairs family were having one of the mad evenings, a regular
occurrence I might add, their children were going up and down the hallway
above , on their roller skates and this was quite late in the evening and Audrey`s
family were all in bed of course, so she asked me to accompany her upstairs to
complain to this rabble, so not knowing what good I could do, I reluctantly went
with her, so she put on her high heel shoes, ( women always seemed to wear
high heels in those days), and upstairs we went and Audrey started banging on
the door and low and behold when the door opened their was A.K. ( I still
remember his name), standing in all his glory in the nude and he started
rambling on about getting Audrey`s husband, David, into the back garden for a
fight. I was stunned but I looked at Audrey, wondering what she was going to do
next and she did not bat an eyelid but calmly bent down and removed one of her
high heels, promptly struck A.K. In the head with the heel and drew blood and
A.K. was shouting for his wife saying that he had been assaulted by this
madwoman from downstairs,(typical of a mentally challenged bully). It was not
long after this incident that AK suddenly disappeared from our lives, taken, I
don't know where, but never to be seen or heard from again. The reason that
Audrey struck A.K. in the first place was that when he started rambling about
fighting David in the back yard, she was only protecting him as David, although
doing a tough, physical job, was quite small and frail, so she got her twopenny
worth in first.

So once again life returned to normal, or as normal as it could be in those

conditions, but one thing I must mention is that Audrey's children, although
living in poor conditions, never suffered or went without food, she always
managed to put food on the table, although sometimes a struggle, and a few of
their clothes were hand me downs from David's employers family, (John
Duncan, of John Duncan Removals), so the family never had much reason to
complain and had a reasonably happy life despite the conditions, Audrey even
had at least 2 fur coats, given, once again by her husbands employers wife and
she would often remark when she put a fur coat on, “fur coat and no drawers”

A few years later the family were upgraded, if you can call it that, they were
moved from Niddrie Mains, a couple of miles up the road to a pre-fabricated
home in the Craigmillar, a bit of a change in that it was a house on its own,
had its own garden and no houses in front, only fields with vegetables growing,
so no shortage of fresh veggies here !!!!. It was here again that I saw the
strength of Audrey when late one evening and again David was away from
home, she heard a prowler in the back garden and without even thinking she
rushed out the back door, broom in hand and tackled this person, who was so
taken aback that he fled over the neighbours fence, never to be seen again,
nursing, I suspect, apart from a bruised ego, a bruised face as well.
Life for the Mitchell's was much more pleasant in Craigmillar and by this time
Audrey`s husband was spending more time at home, but was still in the
furniture moving business but more local now and home mostly every night.
There was a veritable menagerie of animals in the Mitchell household here in
Craigmillar, a blind tortoise, hedgehogs, rabbits, a crow with a hole in its wing,
courtesy of the local farmer, and also cats. Now Audrey loved cats but
unfortunately this was not a happy hunting ground for cats as far as I
remember. I can recall 2 incidents with cats and Audrey, one being the time
she pushed the pram with Margaret in it and the poor cat had its head through
the spokes in the wheel and was literally strangled. Another time, another cat
was shut up in the bed settee, it had snuggled up between the mattress and the
spring ,unbeknown to Audrey, who just folded the bed up and goodnight cat !.
Although the family still struggled with lack of money, I watched in disbelief
sometimes when beggars would come to the door and ask for a couple pennies
and Audrey would always manage to give them a penny or two or threepence if
it was a good week, but they never left without having a cup of tea and a biscuit
or if really lucky, Audrey would have been cooking or made soup that day so
they would have a bowl of soup and bread or whatever else she had made, so I
suppose you could say she was the original soup kitchen in Craigmillar and it
never ceased to amaze me that although we they did not have much themselves
that she could always manage to give to someone worse of than they were. So
life went on and bringing up the three children was always a challenge as,
although never terrible children, they did play up and I remember a bowl of
soup over the head and another time a plate of spaghetti over the head for
misbehaving at the dinner table, no big drama but nowadays that would be
called child abuse, but never done the family any harm and I believe today that
Audrey can be rightly proud of the way her family turned out.
So it was here in Craigmillar that Audrey and David had a late addition to the
family in the arrival of another little girl , (Margaret) , so that completed the
family of two boys and two girls.
Once again I began to realise that Audrey was no ordinary person, she would
always fight for something if she thought she was in the right and was fiercely
protective of her children, she would never hesitate to have a confrontation
with anyone who crossed her path if they upset her and boy did
they know about it, I have heard her argue with councillors, politicians,
business people etc. and she was like a bulldog, if she got a hold of something
she would never let go and has not changed much today, still the champion of
the underdog.
Once again, after a few years, the family moved across town to the more up-
market suburb, (if you can call it that), of Saughton Mains and a double story
home with a large garden, sheer luxury. Once established in Saughton Mains,
and the children growing up, Audrey decided to join the workforce and took on
cleaning jobs to supplement the family income and get a few little luxuries now
and again and her husband David had changed his employment after many
years and had managed to obtain a relatively easy job, driving a truck for the
Edinburgh council with no physical effort required as in the meantime he had,
after many years of pain and suffering, had an operation at last (he had a
duodenal stomach ulcer and had ¾ of his stomach removed ) and for a few years
at least, lived relatively pain free until his untimely demise in 1968 at the age of
56.
After she lost her husband Audrey lived with her youngest daughter, Margaret
and ever since that day Margaret has been, what can only be described as her
unpaid carer. Margaret was only 15 when her father passed away and a few
years later married and had a family of her own but still devoted a lot of her time
caring for her mother and still does today, some forty years later, just like her
mother in the way that she cares for anyone and everyone.
As previously mentioned Audrey worked at cleaning jobs around town,
sometimes 2 or 3 jobs a day and had a very good reputation wherever she
worked, one family in particular was the Fiddes family, Dr. Fiddes was the
police pathologist and he and his family where exceptional people and I did
enjoy a scotch now again with the venerable Dr. whenever I had the time to go
and pick Audrey up from her chores.
Although Dr. and Mrs Fiddes are long gone, one of their sons, Dr. William
Fiddes, who practices in the border regions of Scotland, still keeps in touch with
Audrey and has often offered to come to Edinburgh to pick her up and take her
to his home and stay with the Fiddes family, a sign of the respect she was held
in by the Fiddes family.

Talking of Scotch, another story that Audrey will tell you is that she is a
teetotaller but she does have a brandy or a scotch or Irish cream,(strictly
medicinal), likes nothing better than to have a pub lunch, (we try to have one or
two whenever I visit Scotland), and ever since I can remember, whisky cured all,
when the family was younger, if any of them got sick or even the cat, dog or the
budgie got sick, a tee spoon of whisky cured all and that still goes today. Audrey
also has a remedy for most illnesses, mention something and she will tell you
what the best thing is for it, in fact my wife,Yumiko, affectionately calls her “Dr.
Audrey”.
Audrey was also a speedway mother, I dabbled for a little while in the 2 wheel
sport and invariably we would end up at Audrey`s on a Saturday night, with hot
bacon rolls and a couple of stray competitors from somewhere in the UK or
indeed anywhere else in the world, looking for a bed , they would usually be
from little known competitors to world champions and she just treated them all
the same and if fact on her 90th birthday she received some very nice cards and
letters from these self same people who still remember her with affection.
Audrey worked as a cleaner into her seventies and only had to give it up because
she had a hip replacement which left her with a walking stick, much to her
disgust. It was during this time that she was mugged by two teenagers after
leaving her daughter, Margaret's, house where she had been attending the
birthday party of her granddaughter Jenny. These two young thugs, (they had
some kind of sharp instrument in their hands and were on bicycles) tried to
steal her handbag but they picked the wrong person, and it was here that she
was glad that she had the walking stick and laid into them in no uncertain
manner until they gave up and ran off empty handed. The police were called
and when they asked Audrey to give a description, she described them to a tee
and the police picked them up 2 days later after they had tried to rob someone
else and she identified them with no problem at all.
The police of course lectured Audrey and told her that she was quite silly to
resist as they had a knife , but she just told them that no-one but no-one was
going to steal her handbag with her pension in it.

Fast forward now to the present where these days Audrey still lives alone in her
rented corporation house in Edinburgh,(out of the six sisters there is only
Audrey and her younger sister, Bessie, still with us, but Bessie lives in Surrey
and they talk on the phone for 2 or 3 hours on a Friday evening and if you ask
her what they talk about for that amount of time she will tell you that they solve
the worlds problems ! and you better believe that), basically looking after
herself, although she does have a carer come each morning to make sure she is
up and showered and dressed and then later in the afternoon to make sure that
her meal is prepared for the evening and in the meantime her daughter
Margaret has usually been in sometime during the day or night to help with the
menial tasks around the house.

In 2005 I received a phone call in Australia to say that it looked as though

Audrey had suffered a stroke as she had lost the use of her right leg and it
looked as though she may have to go into hospital or care, so we promptly
jumped on a plane and about 48 hours later arrived in Edinburgh by which time
it had been diagnosed as another hip replacement, the original one from 14 or
15 years previous had fallen apart, which explained why she had no use or
feeling in her leg. So when I arrived it was explained to me that she would
have to have another hip replacement and of course Audrey said that she was
not having it done again as after the first one it left her with a walking stick and
she argued that this time she might end up in a wheelchair so she was having
none of it. I phoned the specialist (Mr. Brusch), and he explained to me that
although she was 89 years old at the time, her health was excellent and it would
not pose much of problem but he added that nothing was 100 per cent and that
he had once lost a perfectly healthy 40 year old on the operating table, very
reassuring I thought.
Mr. Brusch also added that if she did not have the operation that she would have
to go into an aged care home and for someone like her with good health and
brain, she would very quickly go down hill, so armed with this information I
went back to Audrey and told her to sit still and be quiet and listen to what I had
to say which was exactly what Dr. Brusch had told me, and that if she still
insisted that she was not having the operation, then Yumiko and I would be back
on the very next plane to Australia as we would not watch her deteriorate in an
aged care home. Now Mr. Brusch had told me that he had a cancellation that
week and if I could convince Audrey to have the operation then he would do it
the following Monday but that I had to let him know by the end of the day, so I
told Audrey this and said we would have a cup of tea and think about it but after
a few minutes she looked at me and said, well I think you better call Mr. Brusch
now, so that I did and a few days later at 89 years of age
she had the hip replacement and 4 days after that she was made to walk out of
the hospital, under her own steam, with two walking sticks of course, but is now
back to just the one and as feisty as ever.

Audrey is now 94 and is showing some signs of of slowing down but still has her
sense of humour , of course she is getting older, we all are, but there is nothing
wrong with her brain or health, she gave me the dates, addresses and everything
for this story, right of the top of her head, no problem at all.
Well you would think that this would be the end of the story and that she is
living her twilight years in peace and harmony but no such luck, there are some
people hell bent on making her life as miserable as possible, all due to losing
one of her favourite grandsons in a tragic accident.
Audrey's son David is married and for for one reason or another, David`s wife
never spoke to Audrey for over 30 years, (happens in the best of families,but we
wont go there), and I, being a bit of a sentimental fool, when in Edinburgh for
her hip operation, spoke to David's wife and said that after 30 years it was about
time they made peace and she did agree but added that she felt it had been to
long, so I left it at that and told her that Audrey had said that she was welcome
any time. Anyway the upshot is that sometime later, David had a couple of falls
and he put it down to 1. the flu and 2. tripping over the dog.
David's wife was worried about this and did contact my mother and
accompanied David to visit her and things seemed to progressing well for a time,
then everything went pear shaped, due to all of the different theories on how
their son died and why no-one would tell them the truth, consequently with all
the stress and arguments going on David had a severe stroke and has tragically
lost the power of speech and the use of his right arm and leg. When he was first
hospitalised his wife was quite happy to have the the support and help of the
family but for some unknown reason, suddenly turned of David's mother and
sister Margaret and other members of the family and made hospital visits very
uncomfortable for them and even caused confrontations in the ward in front of
her sick husband, so much so that I had to call the Scottish national health
service, from Australia I might add, and arrange special visiting hours for
Audrey and Margaret and even then she was accused, by David's wife, of hitting
her in the face with her walking stick in the car park, to which Audrey of course
replied, in typical fashion, “I wish I had done so”. After this things just went
from bad to worse, Audrey and Margaret received nasty phone calls, nasty
abusive letters, as did I and other members of the family, so again I had to
contact the police in Edinburgh, who very kindly paid Audrey a visit to make
sure she was safe and well and told her to call if there was any-more problems
with those people.
David has now been sent home, (they can do no more for him in hospital), and
his mother and sister are not allowed to see him any more, as is his wife's right
of course . They were allowed to visit once after he left hospital, but after 20
minutes were asked to leave as his wife felt uncomfortable with them there.
When I was told about the conditions they had to adhere to to visit David,
(they had to phone A would then phone B to request a visit, B would phone C
to see if she would allow the visit in the first place, then A would pick up Audrey,
but not Margaret as she is not allowed), I told them that I would not adhere to
any such conditions, and neither should they and that when I came over , if I
wanted to see David I would kick down the door regardless, no one but no one
would stop me, ( I have inherited this streak from Audrey over the years, good or
bad I do not know). So there you have it, a ninety four year old woman who
should be enjoying her twilight years being denied the right to visit her invalid
son and there is this small group of people who have nothing better to do than to
phone each other and think up ways to try and upset her and these self same
people spread malicious gossip, make up stories and keep saying that all they
want is the truth but the sad truth is that they talk about each other behind each
others back and anyway it they were told the truth they would not be able to
handle or believe it , but regardless, they will not win, they are just small minded
people living in their own tiny world, very sad.

So there is the of story of quite a remarkable woman of indomitable spirit, a

woman for all seasons, who has seen more of life than most people, a woman
with more honesty and integrity than most people and who has travelled to
Australia 3 times to visit us, a wonderful mother, grandmother, great
grandmother, great great grandmother ( can rattle of everyone's birthday, never
forgets ) and friend to all and sundry.
So you may well ask, how am I privileged to to know so much about
this woman ? well I can tell you now, I am John Duncan, Audrey and David's
first born.
John Morgan Robinson