31st January, 2012
Dear Jeremy,
I have had such a very happy morning. I skyped with Jill and enjoyed seeing the babies, Hayley and Caiden. He even gave me a little smile, she was more solemn but looked hard at me. This has really made my day and brought back memories of you when a baby.
............
You were a happy and much loved youngest of the family all blond and blue-eyed. You enjoyed your Jolly Jumper - a harness which we clamped in the doorway with your feet touching the floor. You soon learnt to move them so you bounced up and down. When Dad whistled a Scottish tune you moved your feet in time like doing the Highland Fling which made us all laugh and you laughed too. It was great fun.
In May of that year, 1964, Christopher was home on holiday from Waterford School and we had a picnic on the banks of the Kafue River where Timothy fished and the others threw sticks in the water swirling by. There is a picture of you on cine, shaking your head copying Jill shaking her head at you. It was so funny and every time we saw the cine over the years we all laughed again. You were then seven months.
Another picture which I always love on the cine is with you and Dyson, the gardener, sitting in a mud puddle after a heavy tropical downpour. You were splashing ecstatically and putting your muddy hands on your face and sticking your fingers in your mouth to taste the water. Dyson was trying to wash you clean but you were too fast for him as he was laughing so much. Dyson was very fond of you and spent time playing with you or pushing you round in your pram. After we left Zambia he wrote us a letter asking us to come back again.
Christopher made friends with the Harker children and he and Jill went to the cinema in Mufulira with them and to their party and they visited us. There was great excitement when a television was installed for us in the house.
While Michael was busy sorting out the problems of getting the college operating and various problems which the staff seemed to bring in their wake, for example the time a Zambian lady teacher was visiting and her husband came looking for her and found her with another man. Dad made peace then escorted the intruder off the premises and the night watchman on duty had to see he did not come back. I think she left the next day. There were also many visitors who had to be entertained to lunch or dinner. Sadly I find can't put faces to many of the names mentioned in Dad's diary. Looking after you must have been much more interesting and time-consuming.
Timothy, of course, was a great help especially when we went shopping. He would help me lift the pram into the back of the landrover and sit and hold it steady so it did not move while driving along. He also helped me to lift it down again. After shopping he was rewarded with a little car, I think one of the Matchbox series.
Then it was time for Christopher to go back to school and we took him to catch the train in Ndola. This was always a very sad time for me.
It was at this time that Dad handed in his resignation and Michael Stern offered him a teaching post at Waterford. Then Granny Sadler came to visit..
More excitement next time.