I’ve told you before about my Great Uncle Stan. Mind, it was two years ago, and you’ve had a lot on, so let me jog your memory.

Great Uncle Stan kept a fruit and veg barrow on the Northcote Road.  During the war, he spent a lot of time at my Nan’s; once managing to sleep right through an air-raid and waking up to find himself covered in glass from the shattered window beside him.  He had a glass eye which he used to take out at night and put in a jar besides his bed, terrifying my Ma – a child at the time.

Equally terrifying is my memory of him, sitting in the corner of a mental institution in the 1970s. He shook uncontrollably; had no idea who we were;  couldn’t communicate. He has Parkinson’s, the nurses told us.

Continue reading →