Extraordinary LIVES
VERA was my cousin on my mother’s side and our families lived near each other. She was almost two decades older than me, but we had a close relationship. A remarkable lady, she only ever wanted to be a teacher. She studied hard at college to get her teaching qualification, living at home with her parents. At 21 she began her career at a junior school in Carlton, near Nottingham. She went on to teach at three other schools in neighbouring villages, ending up as deputy head of a Church of England school in Eastwood and gaining the respect of her pupils and colleagues. She was never interested in boyfriends or marriage. Instead, she devoted herself to her loving parents. Her father was a coal miner in Underwood and her mother had a corner shop. Vera lived with them until the end of their lives, caring for them in their old age. She felt this was only natural because her parents had supported her when she was young. Vera and I attended
the Church of St Michael and All Angels in Underwood, where her father and brother had sung in the choir. Our Christianity was a bond between us. At the age of 80, she decided to write her life story, as well as a book of poetry. Her writing was influenced by her deep Christian beliefs. ‘I don’t think I am better than anyone or that anyone, by reason of wealth or birth, is better than I,’ she wrote. ‘We are bound together by our common humanity.’ In her memoir,
Echoes Of War, Vera recalled her experiences of World War II when she was a nighttime fire watcher. She also wrote a book about the changing modes of transport during her life: from horses pulling barges on the canals to cars and jumbo jets. She had a good memory and wrote very well. Family was everything to Vera. She had a close relationship with her brother John’s daughter and three sons while my wife Fay and I often spent time with her. We’d take her out for meals or for outings in the car to Chatsworth House. Vera never went abroad, believing England to be quite beautiful and interesting enough. On her 100th birthday, by then living in a care home, she was delighted to receive a birthday card from the Queen. She is buried in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels, her lifelong spiritual home.
VERA MUSGROVE, born July 25, 1918; died March 14, 2020, aged 101.