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.
The move to America was just around the corner. Fourteen years of life was about to be left behind. But how do you pack up fourteen years of life? Anyone who’s read the post about Rosemary and Bill’s house know that it was huge… like, huge huge. Twenty-one rooms and a basement. It would eventually be turned into seven apartments.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
“We had twenty-two cupboards in the kitchen in Bedford and we had twenty-two rooms in the house. I think it was actually only twenty-one but it sounds better to say twenty-two. And that didn’t include the basement which was only for storage.”
So Rosemary got to work. Four different coloured stickers. One colour for stuff going to the USA, one colour for stuff going to friends, one colour for stuff staying in the house, and one colour for stuff being thrown.
After that was done the moving men moved in. They were there from Monday till Thursday, starting at the top of the house and working their way down one room at a time. Once a room was done Rosemary would work quickly to take everything they were bringing to the States and throw it in the empty room. That would be sorted later.
The movers were fantastic, said Rosemary. So meticulous and thorough. They were just a local company, a small company, probably no longer around now. But they were brilliant.
“Not one thing got lost, not one thing got broken. They were so careful.”
For their last night in England they stayed at friends, and then flew out the next day. Well, I say they. Bill had already flown back. He could only be in England for a short time because of work. Most of the children had moved out, some were away for the summer, so in fact it was just Rosemary and one of her daughters who flew on that somewhat anticlimactic ending to an era.
All the stuff that was to go the America with Rosemary and Bill arrived six weeks after they did. It had to be shipped over, it was so much stuff.
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.