Your Mother Wore Army Boots
is dedicated to and in memory of
my father
Alfred Charles Knight
and my mother
Ivy May Richardson
Extract from
'Your Mother Wore Army Boots'
Chapter Two
'You Cant Fight City Hall'
I was stunned at his response; and feeling like a child with a sackful of presents and wanting to rip the paper off at speed, I had to put the brakes on to stop myself blurting out the endless questions that I had bubbling away inside me.
We ventured into our first conversation steadily and sensibly. I explained to him that I knew he was very ill to which he replied quite candidly 'No darlin' I'm not ill...I'm dying!' An obvious ingredient of his personality, he went on to explain the seriousness of his chronic dis-ease. It read like a report from the Lancet. He told me he had been offered further chemotherapy and, having asked the doctor how much longer it would give him, was told possibly another six weeks.
'Fuck that', he said 'putting up with my hair falling out and feeling sick every day, they can keep it!'. He went on 'if those guys down at the Legion shout 'Hey Alfie!, you comin' down for a drink?...I wanna be able to say 'sure!' I'll be right there!'
With a resolute attitude he affirmed 'I have got in-operable, terminal Cancer, Cancer is a beautiful, indiscriminate baby.. I don't know which way it's gonna go..either way you're fucked!'
He went on..'I don't really feel ill or anything..just some ominous feelings..if anything it's old age catching up with me!..I'm under the Doctor again but wishing i was under the Nurse!'.
We made a firm promise to sing together and, using his ex Army service jargon he said cheerily 'We can up cups and jolly up!'..Some of those women in the Legion...you gotta remember they were Army Service gals..they can really drink! One woman ..she was falling over after a few large glasses of wine and a Peach Cider..she's 71. Those women are rough..they looked like they've been pulled through a garbage can!'
I laughed in disbelief.
'In order to write one's reminiscences, it is not necessary at all to be a great man or a notorious criminal, nor a celebrate artist, nor a Statesman - it is quite enough to be simply a human being, to have something to tell.
Every life is interesting.
From Alexander Hertzen's
'My Past and Thoughts'
'It's beautifully written..I can let my imagination take me along with you.
You seem to describe things so well. I feel your emotions like it's happened to me.
If I had to sum it up..I would say it's easy reading..pulls you along and you just want to keep reading.
I like the fact that you don't revel in self-pity either. It's compelling and amusing. You've got the balance just right in my view.
It's a wonderful heart-warming story
Mrs. Owen - Burton-on-Trent Staffordshire