Audrey was born in 1930 at 34 Washington Road: a little two up two down which has long since disappeared. Her father was the youngest of a big family. Her brother Cyril was nine years older than she was and she was very much the baby. When war broke out, Cyril went off to London to study. The other children in her school were evacuated, but her mother couldn’t bear the thought of being alone, so Audrey stayed behind.
As soon as she was old enough, Audrey joined the guides, and there she met Jean Wiltshire, who became a life long friend. Audrey had that knack: of keeping the friends she made, several of her friendships going back seventy years or more.
At fourteen, she joined the Co-op, and worked there for forty six years, until she retired. It’s probably typical that she was in the butchery department, for Audrey loved her food. Her mother used to say “Feed a cold, starve a fever”. As Audrey said, she never had a fever. At Christmas, she would arrive at her brother’s house, staggering under the weight of hams and capons and other treats.
In the days when chickens were expensive luxuries, Audrey came home from a camping trip on the Isle of Wight to be told they were having chicken for dinner. She was so pleased to be spoiled like that – until she learned that the chicken was not in her honour, but to impress Cyril’s fiancée!
In the 1950s, package holidays took off, and so too did Audrey and Jean. Each year they had a holiday in a different European country. Audrey loved shopping and buying presents. She would return with dolls in national costume, decorated plates and finely embroidered tablecloths.
In the early 1960s, Audrey’s side of Washington Road was flattened and she and her mother moved to a flat in Fratton. It was modern and purpose built. The neighbours were moved en bloc, so they all knew each other. But all the shops that Audrey loved were on the other side of the city and public transport over the years got steadily worse. Her mother died in 1966, so her only company in the flat were a succession of budgies and Lucky, an enormous ginger cat who was so well fed that he never felt the need to catch birds.
When she retired, Audrey took up Aquafit classes as a way of keeping in trim, and acquired a whole new circle of friends. She truly valued friendships and was always proud of the huge numbers of cards she received each Christmas. Christmas was always a special season and she would plan for it throughout the year, trying to find presents the recipients would really appreciate.
As they got older, Jean and Audrey confined their holidays to the UK. Not that this limited their enjoyment: there were coach trips out, and the wonderful food. Sadly, at this period, Audrey started to be subject to unexplained falls. On one occasion this happened on the very last morning of the holiday, and Audrey travelled back on the coach with a broken arm.
Jean’s mother had suffered from dementia and soon Jean herself was starting to get forgetful: the holidays had to cease. Audrey in her eighties entered a bleak period: she was losing her best friend, many of her other friends and relations were dead and she was so afraid of falling that she was frightened to leave her own home. She was developing a lump on her neck, and Jean’s niece persuaded her to have it investigated. There ensued a chaotic period where she fell, was taken to hospital, discharged back home, promptly fell again and finally was diagnosed with tb.
For months she was in hospital, on powerful medication. The doctors spoke too quickly for her to understand and nobody had time to listen to her. The nurse would smile at Audrey absently, when she was actually saying was “I’m getting my money’s worth here”
When she was finally discharged, the doctors gave her no more than a year. Jean had died and all the family could hope for her was that Audrey would be comfortable in Harry Sotnick House.
Audrey confounded us all. She loved the visits from all her friends and family. Her room gradually filled with Pompey memorabilia, and that part of the home was, perhaps inevitably, named Fratton Park. She loved following her team, and the home arranged visits to the real Fratton Park. She loved her church, important to her all her life. She loved quizzes and puzzles. She loved light and colour. She loved animals, saving her biscuits to feed Fred and Mabel, the pigeons outside her window.
Thanks to the love and care shown to her at Harry Sotnick, she had four very happy years there. She wanted to live to be a hundred. Audrey was someone who squeezed every last drop of enjoyment from life. What we will remember of her is her big smile and her rich chuckle.