What follows is a short story from Rosemary’s past. After talking with her, I have taken our discussion and turned it into a series of small stories highlighting the incredible life that she has led. Direct quotes from our discussion are highlighted in quotation marks. All else is a retelling written by yours truly.
It wasn’t quite the intensity of that first move to Sicily, nor was it anything like the move to Iran. Four years, Rosemary was there, which was at least three years longer than she thought she’d be. And it definitely wasn’t like the move to Australia. That one took three weeks on a boat.
No, this move was contained within the borders of England. They were moving to Bedford.
Although, ironically, though this move didn’t take three weeks by boat it did end up taking them around three months before they finally settled into a house in Bedford.
The move was quite sudden, as all the moves seemed to be for Rosemary, and the family relocated before they could find a house. Instead they had to stay in a hotel. Four rooms. Two in each room.
That’s the dream, isn’t it? To live in a hotel?
Maybe not, considering the size of the family. And the hotel wasn’t the size of some of the hotels you get nowadays. Not to mention the fact that each weekend, Rosemary would have to journey back to Purley just so they could do their laundry. She couldn’t remember if the hotel had laundry facilities or not but it definitely didn’t have facilities for a family of that size.
Rosemary and Bill were still trying to sell their house in Purley. So on Fridays Rosemary would journey back to their old home with all the laundry. She’d clean the house, sort out the garden, whatever it took to make the house look pretty. And she’d do the laundry.
Then she’d journey back on the Sundays.
Three months journeying back and forth each weekend. Needless to say it was not the most settling of times.
Stay tuned for more stories from the life of Rosemary. Please note: these stories will not necessarily hold any chronological grounding. They are designed as snippets of understanding into the life of Rosemary and while some will hold chronology, others may not.