A Stitch In Time

Tanya’s gran refused to talk about the war – until a jumble sale find brought generations together

Mattie looked down in the mouth as she piled her books into her back pack. “It’s history today. I hate history. It’s all about old stuff.” “Never mind. It’s Friday.” “Mum. When can we go home?” Her mother, Tanya, shook her head. “As soon your gran comes back from her Caribbean cruise. You know, I’ve got to stay here to look after my gran.” Mattie rolled her eyes. “You should talk to your great-gran more. She would love you to do that.”

Mattie ate a mouthful of buttered toast before slinging on her backpack, which was crammed with school textbooks, and heading for the door.

“Can I have a kiss before you go?” Another eye-rolling moment followed by a peck on the cheek. “Have a good day, love.” “You too, Mum. Bye, Granny Grace,” she shouted before heading for the door.

Tanya shook her head but had no time to say anything. She had to pop back home to see if the cat was all right and that Jeff was coping with the day-to-day running of the house. Not that he needed to do much. She’d left plenty food in the freezer for him.

She hadn’t thought twice when her mother told her she was off on a cruise and could she look after Granny Grace? Her mother had become a widow just two years ago and had only recently bounced back. Patrick, the new man in her life, had swept her off her feet, then married her, and now they were on honeymoon cruising around the Caribbean. Tanya was happy for her. “Very glamorous,” she said to herself as she busied herself around the house. In a bid to carry out her duties to family, she had taken the fortnight off work and given Mattie the choice of coming with her or staying with her father. Jeff had insisted she go with her mother. “I’ve got some big jobs coming off. I may be called away.” Jeff drilled in quarries up and down the country moving a very large rig from one end of it to the other. He was right in saying that Mattie would be better b off with her mother.

There’s a jumble sale at the church hall. You do know that, don’t you?” said her grandmother as they sat down to lunchtime jacket potatoes. “I’ve finished the book I was reading. I could do with a few more and no doubt they’ll have some. Anyway, it’s all in a good cause – the money will go to the seniors’ summer outing. I’m going, of course. I go every year and they’re so good to accommodate my wheelchair.”

“And you’d like me to see if I can pick up a few bargains?”

“Oh yes,” said her grandmother. “I most certainly would.” Always keen to grab a bargain, her grandmother loved jumble sales and charity shops. Now she was in a wheelchair and if Tanya’s mother wasn’t around it was Tanya who got sent to peruse the musty smelling shops and church halls rummaging for bargains she didn’t really want.

At the busy JUMBLE sale the old EMBROIDERY fell onto the FLOOR

Grabbing a bargain was not guaranteed, but Tanya had promised and got there just as the doors were opening.

The tables were piled high and casually divided into different segments – toys and games on one table, men’s clothes on another, women’s outer garments, and another counter for children’s clothes. A further one was stocked with home furnishings, old curtains faded from the effect of direct sunlight, tablecloths, duvet covers and flannelette sheets.

Tanya paid fifty pence each for two

cushion covers decorated with cats. Another fifty pence bought her a pair of pillowcases.

The piled-up items toppled a little from the weight of would be purchasers pressing against it.

“Steady on, ladies, steady on!” shouted the woman behind the counter. “There’s plenty bargains for everyone.”

The few items that tumbled to the floor were rapidly retrieved and scrutinised before either being bought or flung back onto the pile.

One scruffy looking item was left where it fell and Tanya felt obliged to pick it up. It was nothing much more than a crumpled rag and if it hadn’t fallen onto the floor, she wouldn’t have given it a second look – until she spotted the embroidery.

“Ten pence,” said the woman behind the stall at the church jumble sale.

“How about five pence?” said Tanya who wasn’t really that keen on buying it anyway but wouldn’t miss a few pence.

The woman behind the counter wasn’t letting it go at that. “Oh come on. It’s for a good cause. The seniors’ summer coach outing. No doubt your gran will be coming.”

Shamed into paying the asking price, Tanya delved into her purse and came out with two five pence pieces. “Here you are, then.” The woman behind the stall had a triumphant look on her face. “I’m sure Mrs Brandon will much appreciate it.” “I’m sure she will,” returned Tanya. “It’ll come in useful as a duster if nothing else.” She was always short of dusters and at present had no threadbare pillowcases to do the job. Once she’d perused all the other stalls and made purchases on the book stall, Tanya decided that enough was enough.

The net curtains at the window of the granny flat attached to the main house twitched as she approached. The first thing she did when she got in was to slip off her shoes. The second was to put the kettle on. “Cup of tea Gran?”

“Yes please. Did you get any bargains?”

Tanya smiled to herself. Bargain was her grandmother’s favourite word and finding bargains was not so much a hobby as a way of life.

“Not much really, but I did my best. There were a few books there.”

Gran’s eyes shone behind her wire framed spectacles. “The sort I like?”

“Yes. Loads of romance and nothing about the war.” “Oh good.” Tanya smiled. No matter that her grandmother was ninety-four, she did so love a romantic novel, as long as it wasn’t set in wartime. Tanya’s mother had told her that Grace had banned the subject of war from the house. Even as a child she had been forbidden to mention it and nobody knew what she’d experienced during those years. It was simply never mentioned.

Her grandmother leaned forward, eyes bright with interest. “So come on. Let me see what you’ve got.”

Tanya plonked the carrier bag of purchases onto the coffee table.

“Not much of a haul,” she said as she pulled out the pretty cushion covers and three paperback novels.

The scruffy looking piece of material once again fell to the floor.

“And this is just a duster,” said Tanya. “You’ll see what I mean.”

Clearing the other stuff to the end of the coffee table, she flattened out the rough piece of sacking which somebody had embroidered in a mixture of coloured wools and silk thread.

“I’ll just go and make that cup of tea,” said Tanya.

Her grandmother made no comment. After making the tea and adding the milk Tanya poked her head around the door.

“Would you like two chocolate biscuits or three?”

Her grandmother was sitting staring down at the dingy embroidered tray cloth and did not appear to hear what was said to her. “Gran?” Receiving no response, she went back into the room.

“Can I put this away now?” Tanya asked. She reached out meaning to scoop the dirty thing off of the table and into the cupboard where she kept polish and Brasso. “No.” She looked down at her grandmother’s hands and noticed they were trembling.

“What is it, Gran? Whatever’s the matter?” she asked.

Her grandmother made no reply but continued to stare at the tray cloth. Unable to work out what the problem was, Tanya took a closer look.

For a start the cloth was very old. It had water stains around the edges and although the colours must at one time have been vibrant, they were now faded with age.

“My goodness…” whispered Tanya as she took in what she was seeing. The stitching formed a picture… A group of women headed a long column. Some were carrying a baby in one arm while holding onto a toddler with the other. One pushed a pram. All of them looked rather haggard. They were depicted against a wire fence running between guard towers. Along the opposite edge to the straggle of women a list of names had been stitched in a finer thread.

Tanya squinted. “Look at this.” She ran her fingers down the list of names. “Such tiny writing. I can barely read it.”

“Don’t bother with it now. I’m tired.” Her grandmother lay back in the chair and closed her eyes.

Tanya left her grandmother to sleep. She had an evening meal to prepare and a wash load to transfer from the washing machine into the tumble drier. On glancing out of the window and seeing it was still sunny, she decided to hang it out to dry on the line.

She was still doing that when Mattie came home. That was when she suddenly remembered that it was time for her grandmother’s afternoon medication which she preferred to wash down with a cup of tea.

“Mattie. Can you give Gran her pills and a cup of tea?”

As is the way of teenagers, Mattie adopted an expression that conveyed how uncool it was to be doing something like that.

We were DETERMINED to make a RECORD of our time in the camp

“How did the history lesson go?” Mattie shrugged. “OK.” On going back inside, she got caught up with more chores, but satisfied that Gran had taken her pills, put off going in to see her. As for Mattie… well no doubt she was already upstairs, either chatting with her friends on her mobile or playing games on her tablet.

It wasn’t until she’d finally turned off the radio, that she heard muffled conversation from her grandmother’s room. To her surprise, it sounded like Mattie. She frowned. Grandmothers – even great grandmothers – were not the coolest things in Mattie’s world, but, surprise, surprise, she was still in there.

The door was slightly ajar. Tanya put her ear to the door. What she heard set her hair on end…

“We were determined to make a record of our time in the camp. We would have been punished if our Japanese captors had found out, but we hid it well. You see there? That was me.” “You look so young, Granny Grace.” “I wasn’t always this age, you know.” Filled with curiosity, Tanya pushed open the door. Mattie was kneeling on the floor bent over the shabby tray cloth and almost head to head with her grandmother. On hearing her mother enter, she looked up, her eyes sparkling and full of amazement.

“Granny Grace helped make this, mum. She was so cool. So amazing.”

Tanya was dumbfounded, even more so as her grandmother explained how she was interned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp and how the women had determined to record their arrival there.

“We had no paper, but we did have a piece of sacking, some wool and some thread. And there’s my name there in the list… see?”

Tanya looked, too dumbfounded to say anything. There indeed was her grandmother’s maiden name.

“And there she is,” added Mattie pointing to a thin figure. “Isn’t history so cool?”

Tanya smiled and her eyes filled with tears as she looked at her ancient grandmother. “Yes. It’s cool all right.”

Her grandmother shook her head and her bottom lip trembled. “I didn’t care when it went missing from the house all those years ago. It was such a frightening time. I just wanted to forget such horrible things had ever happened, so I blanked everything about the war from my memory. But now…”

Eyes misted with tears, she looked at her great-granddaughter.

“It’s important for young people to know about it, to never forget.”

“I won’t, Granny Grace, I promise,” Mattie said solemnly, as Tanya took the cloth and folded it reverently.

A duster? This was a family heirloom, to be treasured forever.