A Guiding Light

My Grandmother, Grace Quinn, was born Grace Moon on January 29 1905. She was a very talented musician in her youth who played the violin to a very good standard. She was offered the opportunity to study the violin but that required a not insignificant financial input from the family. Unfortunately, she was from a working class family whose focus, as for so many at the time and since, was finding the money to put food on the table. The headmistress of the school she attended told my Great Grandmother that she would pay for the school fees rather than see the talent that Grace had go to waste. My Great Grandmother was extremely offended by what she saw as a personal slight and refused to countenance the offer. So, at 14 Grace gave up the violin and went into service like so many girls of the time.

Once in service her intelligence shone through. In another age she would have definitely gone to university, but she turned her mind to bettering herself. She learnt French and she got a job with the family who owned the Ovaltine brand. This job saw her spending a year in France looking after the children of the family. At the time, a 21 year old woman from such humble beginnings being able to get this opportunity was quite incredible. A full 99 years later, the situation is once again the same as we deal with a world that only values money and influence not ability.

Through her job in service she met Gerald, a butler, who became her husband. They were together for more than 40 years and had two children. They lived in London, in various places before retiring to a small village called Felsted in Essex. They had a lovely cottage with a very nice garden and they opened their house to me. The atmosphere was much more relaxed than I was used to at home and I loved visiting and staying there. I first recall meeting them in 1972 when I was seven. Straight away we were partners in crime! She was mischievous, had a great sense of humour and was a fund of good sense.

Whenever I needed advice it was my Nana who I turned to, particularly when she moved to La Providence in Rochester and I visited her for lunch almost every Saturday. She was in her late seventies and early eighties and sharp as a tack. I got to know her as a person, not just my Nana, and she was one of the most amazing people I ever met.

I left for Japan in 1995 the year of her 90th birthday. By that time she had met our two sons and developed a real affection for my wife who she said was exactly the person I needed. She was right about that as she was about so much else. I said to her that I was going to be away for three years but that I would see her when I came back. She said, very firmly, that she was not going to be around when that happened. It was a statement of intent, not a form of words. As it turned out, I stayed away for three and a half years, during which time she moved into a home, having developed late onset dementia. A week before I came back she died and I am convinced that it was something she determined for herself as she wanted me to remember her as she was. Well, she succeeded. I only have amazing memories of a sharp, funny and totally wise force of nature, my Grandmother Grace, who lived up to that name all her life.