Happy 90th to Nan!

  • Posted by Ruby

As the rest of Britain continues Diamond Jubilee festivities, my mind and heart turn to distant shores, where another blue-eyed, grey-haired English lady is also celebrating an impressive milestone. My grandmother, Mary, was born on 4th June 1922. She is 90 today.

I had considered doing a whole ‘This is Your Life’ feature for her, but I’ll save that for her 100th. For now, just a tip of the proverbial hat to a woman who survived a war, emigrated to a new world and raised a loving and prosperous family. She is, in many ways, a role model for me, as I reversed her migration and settled in the land of her birth. I understand, better now than ever before, the sacrifices she made in leaving most of her family behind, and the challenges of assimilating into a new culture.

Nanny with my mother as a girl (late 1940s)

My dear late Granddad used to say that Nan, her mother and sisters were all ‘strong women’ (well he may have used a more colourful word but he meant it fondly!) and that my mom and I had inherited that from them. A truth of which I am intensely proud.

With her great-grandson (2008)

Finally, since this is, after all, a food blog, here are a few of Nanny’s recipes that have been featured so far:

Kahlua
Sherry Trifle
Lemon Curd

Happy 90th Birthday Nanny, with lots of love from ‘across the pond’ xxxx