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Sad to report that my aunt, who celebrated her 100th birthday in November, passed away last evening. That is her with me on her birthday in the picture below.

She was my fathers sister, and my Godmother. She lived in Heanor all her life, never more than a mile from the house in Ray Street where she was born. However, she married a man that worked for Midland General and so toured much of Europe on a bus, but also managed some flights to Spain for holidays in the early 60's!

I find myself getting a bit too sad over her death, but I have to remind myself that she lived 100 years - and probably saw many more changes in those years than we ever will, even if we live that long.

She was a wonderful person. Despite being blind and almost deaf for the past few years, she never made a big deal out of it. Prior to that, she would walk into the town almost daily, and when she got bored she would just take a bus somewhere! When we visited, she loved to be taken for a day trip into Derbyshire, recounting trips she took in her younger years along the way.

I only hope I can maintain the level of dignity she did in my older years. She will be missed.

DSCN1733.jpg

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Eric

Very sorry to hear of the passing of your Aunt.

I too lost my Father and Aunt in recent years after finding them late in life in the US.

I know you will treasure the time you spent with her on your visits, as I did with my family.

Our condolences to you and your family.

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Sorry for your sad news, it's good that you got to visit with her recently, keep those memories with you, and think how pleased she was to have you with her for a while.

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Lovely words and a fine tribute, Eric. She sounded like a wonderful lady.

I am so glad that you both were able to come over and share her special day, I hope it leaves you with a store of pleasant memories.

Sending my condolences.

God Bless.

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My condolences to you and your family, Limey. You paint a lovely picture of your aunt and you were both lucky to have each other as friends. She would have been thrilled to be taken on trips into Derbyshire and have the opportunity to reminisce. Being 100 years of age, she would have much to remember and one of those memories would be all the good times that you spent together.

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have often had this conversation.....I find it quite strange really that folk that are still alive today have seen virtually every major change in the world we live in today...all we'll see is ''refinements' of stuff that was already there ( apart from a few things ).

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I often discussed all the changes she had seen with her. Amazing to think that when she was young it would take longer for her to get to London than it takes me to get there from Michigan today!

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Looks like the bottom left hand wall of the chimney on your new house needs a bit of pointing work Eric.

Let me know when you are going to be in and I will pop round with my trowel and some morter :)

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Drop by anytime Mick - I'll put you to work!

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Condolences Limey. I think that very old folk just get bored with life. Julie's mother did two years ago at 96. One day she just said "I've had enough now, I'm tired and all my friends have gone" a few weeks later she died.

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So sorry to hear your news Eric. I've met a few centenarians, and the thing that always strikes me about them is that they have invariably kept their mental faculties, and this makes them both interesting and delightful to talk to. It's an amazing thing to talk to people who have spanned 100 years. None of my family has reached that milestone and I am the oldest in the immediate family circle. But I do think of my grandmothers born in 1891 and 1897 respectively, and my grandfathers born in 1879 and 1890 (he died 7 years before I was born). I could kick myself now for not just getting to know and understand them more, and talking to them more when I could have done so.

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Sorry to hear your news Eric. Your aunt will be greatly missed I expect.

I used to work in a residential home for the elderly (cook) and loved to chat with them about their memories. They have some marvellous tales to tell to those who enjoy to listen to them. I keep thinking I should write down what my own parents tell me before their memories are forgotten. They have spent all their lives in Nottingham,(well Ruddington, Hucknall and Watnall) and remember the war years and how the area was when a lot of it was still fields, not sprawling suburbs, when you could cycle for miles without hardly seeing a car.

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darkazana (#20), getting the memories from the elderly people is vital to the historians of Nottingham. It's also what we want to read about on Nottstalgia. I was thinking of filming my Mum as I chatted to her about our family history and life in Nottingham. I was going to set this up but let the weeks and months pass by. I came to regret this because she became ill and passed away. If you have the chance to do it then do it now, darkazana. The reason I was going to film it is because they can chat away without interruption. If you were taking notes then they'd have to keep stopping them as you tried to keep up with your notes. This would cause them to lose track of the points they were making. Afterwards you can rewind your film as many times as necessary to enable you to get your story typed out.

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