Margaret’s moving letter the tale of young love

ANOTHER peek into my Old White Bear postbag. A moving letter comes from Mrs Margaret Tildesley, of Hadleigh, Suffolk, who recalls my connection with the former mining village of South Elmsall. “I enjoy reading your column.

“My late husband Terry was born and grew up in South Elmsall at Frickley, when he left school and went down the pit with his dad, brother, uncles and cousins.

“After a couple of years he hated it so he joined the Army, Royal Engineers. He was stationed in Hoo, near Chatham, and in 1960 came up to Hadleigh where I live.

“I met him on Wednesday 4 May, and on Saturday 7 May he proposed to me.

“He said the Army has me for eight years, you can have me for life.

“He took me to meet his family for

Whitsun, we got engaged in July and in August he was posted to the Cameroons in Africa. We then got married on 9 December 1961.

“We would have celebrated our diamond wedding anniversary this year but he sadly got Alzheimer’s and passed away on 15 July 2020.

“I have two grandchildren and great grandchildren, but it’s very lonely without my soldier. Cherish your family.”

I do, I shall, Margaret, and thank you for sharing your life story with me. I knew quite a few miners from Frickley Colliery, indeed I once went down the pit.

That is where my money went during the Great Strike of 1984/85, to help with the soup kitchen.

I am still a member of two clubs – the Empire and the Brookside – but I have not been able to get there for ages.

As my father might have said... damn and blast and curse and set fire to this awful pandemic.