The next morning with my curiosity getting the better of me, I just had to see Pop’s grave, if only to put my mind at rest, so I dashed back to the cemetery, when I got there, there was the bouquet left by Lesley and myself, but there was also another small bouquet of flowers with a note, which was not there yesterday when Lesley and I had left, I could not recall either man carrying a bouquet of flowers though, maybe they brought them afterwards, yes maybe I was thinking but then I was not really paying either of them much attention so maybe they were carrying the bouquet.
The note read, Why did you leave us?, why did you not come back?, I wanted you to come back, I missed you father, your son Charles. xxx
I stood there with silent tears running down my face, Lesley and I had seen and spoken to Charles Lello and his son yesterday, our uncle and cousin, we both even commented on his likeness to Uncle Bill yet neither of us did not know who they were, how did it come to this, where family are total strangers, that is so sad, I sniffed and wiped my eyes all the way out the cemetery and all the way home.
Chapter 16
You remember that morning I was sitting in a café waiting for my cousin Nat and I had an idea about wondering if I could do genealogy for a living, well I have enrolled in an online course studying genealogy, was thinking if I can research my own family tree then I could research other people’s too, so I thought let’s give it a try but first I needed to gain a qualification, with the course being online I can still continue working during the day at the real estate office and do my course in the evenings, what I really needed was money though to set up my own business, but that was the difficult part, I may not go out socialising or spending my money on clothes or shoes but my rent is expensive, would be cheaper if I got a flatmate to help share the expense but I did not want that, I did not have much in the way of Savings.
I also harboured a dream that one day it would be nice if I could get Peggy and her brother Charles and sister Kate together, before they get too old and the chance is gone forever, the thought of contacting Charles or Kate seemed daunting but then I thought maybe Lesley could contact them, yes I was chickening out but one day I might try that approach.
Lindsay Harrison, Genealogist - I liked the sound of that, now who can I look for next? After three months studying I had completed my genealogy course and passed, which was a relief, as I was worried having not studied anything for so long that I might not be very good and fail.
Obviously with my new business venture I wanted to appear more professional to the general public, cannot just sit behind a computer all day doing research, need to get out and do the leg work too, people would be paying me for a service and I know what I would expect if it were me. But I could not afford office space anywhere and I was not sure I wanted to give up my job at the real estate office either until the genealogy business got established, I felt like I was a bit stuck, but in order for the new venture to work I asked my boss if I could reduce the number of days I worked from three to two, so he agreed and now I am working just two days per week but on call if needed, so I really needed to make this genealogy business work, one way or another it would have too.
I brought myself a answering machine as well so people could leave me a message and I got myself a new desk and a filing cabinet and turned part of my living room into an office space, it will have to do, for now. I even had some business cards made up, I was so excited about that I wanted to frame one and hang it on the wall, but thought it might look a bit tacky so changed my mind, but still it is exciting seeing your name on something. I placed an advertisement in my local newspaper to begin with, asking if anyone would like a long lost relative found or their family history looked in to.
Every day after work I checked the answering machine, no messages, I found myself staring at the telephone in the evenings, willing it to ring, by the end of the week I thought, well need to try something else then. Whilst sorting out my laundry on Friday morning, the phone rang and I could of jumped for joy.
“hello Lindsay Harrison speaking”
“oh hello dear, I see your advertisement in the paper and I was just wondering if you could help me with a little something”
“of course I will try to help you but there are no guarantees that I will find what you are looking for but I will obviously try my best, may I take some details, to start with, your name?”
“oh yes or course, my name is Dorothy Bellowes, Bellowes with es on the end not just an s”
“and how can I try and be of assistance Dorothy”
“I want to find my brother, I don’t know where he is”
“when did you last see him?”
“oh when I was a little girl, I am seventy five years old now you know and he is fifteen years older than me, he might not even be alive anymore, I just don’t know”
“well Dorothy if it is ok with you, I can come and see you and you can give me all the details that you know of, would that be ok?”
“oh yes that would be good”
I wrote down Dorothy’s address and made a time for Monday to go and see her, thankfully she only lived in Beddington, which is not too far away.
I made my way to Dorothy’s house in Beddington on the Monday morning, she lives in a lovely semi-detached house near the Beddington Park and I knocked on her door and waited five minutes for her to answer, I was beginning to think she was not home but then Dorothy opened the door.
“hello Dorothy, I’m Lindsay Harrison”
“hello dear, do come in, sorry to take so long to answer the door, my joints get a bit stiff and I find it hard to move when I have been sitting down for a while”
Dorothy offered me a cup of tea but I declined and took out my notebook and pen and got straight in to asking a few questions.
“Dorothy what can you tell me about your brother?”
“well I don’t know where to start”
“well lets start with his name and date of birth”
“oh yes of course, his name is Tom, Thomas Caxton and he was born on 18th July 1925 in Hammersmith”
“and what are his parents names?”
“well our father was Dennis Caxton, he died in 1945 during the war, when I was only five years old and a few years later my mother remarried, Tom’s mother however is not my mother, you see my father was married to someone else before he married my mother”
“and do you know the name of Tom’s mother?”
“her name was Harriet but I don‘t know anything about her, all I know is she died and my father married my mother a year before I was born”
“and what is your mother’s name Dorothy?”
“my mother was named Elizabeth but father used to always call her Lizzie”
“so Dennis and Harriet had Tom in 1925, did they have any other children?”
“yes they had a girl as well, her name is Matilda, she is two years younger than Tom, I know all about her, she died a few years ago now but she did not know where Tom was either, to be honest I did not really like her very much, she was very mean to me when I was growing up, nasty girl”
“so how did you lose touch with Tom?”
“well Tom was fifteen when I was born, he was already out working by then, he and Matilda lived with us of course, but I do not think mother got on too well with her stepchildren, Matilda was very snobby, and Tom when he was at home he was fun but I think there were a lot of rows with my mother, I do not know what about, after father died, Tom moved out and Matilda stayed with us for a bit but it was not too long before she moved out too, she did not like Eddie, she thought he was making eyes at her, if you know what I mean”
“Dorothy you have lost me a minute, who is Eddie?”
“oh Eddie was my fathers best friend, when my father got married the first time to Harriet, Eddie was his best mate at his wedding and when Eddie married, my father was his best mate at his wedding, you see my father and Harriet and Eddie and his wife Lilian they all lived together, so there were the four adults plus Tom and
Matilda and later when Harriet died and father married my mother, then we all lived together as well, plus Eddie and Lilian had two children, Johnny and Laura who were around the same age’s as Tom and Matilda”
“sounds like an interesting household Dorothy”
“it was busy, but money was short in those days and two families living together helped pay the bills”
“so did you see Tom again after he moved out?”
“oh yes sometimes, he would come and visit in the evenings after he had finished work or pop around on the weekends on his bike, he liked bicycles”
“and what did he do for a living?”
“he mostly did labouring jobs on building sites, that sort of thing”
“so what happened after your father passed away?”
“well the sad thing was after father died, less than six months later Eddie’s wife Lilian was killed when she got hit by a bus on the Broadway in Fulham, she stepped out into the road apparently”
“oh that’s very tragic”
“yes, that left just mother and Eddie living in the house with just me and Johnny and Laura, it seemed very quiet at home after that, Tom still came to visit at times, but was becoming less often and Matilda came around every Sunday for tea, but it just did not feel the same at home, then one day mother said we were moving, too many bad memories”
“so you moved, where did you move too?” as I was trying to make notes of everything Dorothy was telling me.
“we moved south of the river, to Streatham, it was nice there, I went to a new school, and it was just me and mother at home now, it felt a bit odd to begin with but we got used to it, then one day mother said she had something to tell me, she told me I was to get a baby brother or sister”
“oh I see, that must have been a surprise?”
“well I don’t know if it was a surprise but I did not know who the daddy was as my own father was already dead but I suspect it was Eddie as my mother married Eddie a few months after my sister Evelyn was born, though Evie never called him daddy at all”
“ah so your mother married Eddie, did that make you happy?”
“I don’t know about happy, but at least Johnny and Laura did not live with us, they had both moved out too by then”
“so where does Evelyn live now then?”
“I lost my sister when she was only sixteen, she had tuberculosis, died in hospital”
“that must have been very hard for you”
“yes I do miss her, Matilda one day told me years later that Evelyn was illegitimate, a bastard child, Matilda is nasty like that, I cannot stand her, she is just plain horrible to me, she said that the rows between Tom and my mother were because he accused her of having an affair with Eddie under father’s own nose, after mother married Eddie we did not see Tom again, he just stopped visiting, I don’t know where he went or where he is or why he never came to visit us again”
“did Matilda ever see her brother at all?”
“if she did she never said, there was no mention of Tom at all, have no idea why, Matilda married and had a family of her own, she later moved to Bournemouth”
“and what happened to Johnny and Laura? Did you keep in touch with them?”
“I saw them from time to time when I was growing up, but not often, they did not have a lot to do with mother after their own mother died, they tended to keep their distance”
“there has been a lot of sadness in your family Dorothy, I cannot promise I will find Tom but I will try my very best”.
We said our goodbyes and I promised to keep her informed of any developments in the search for Tom. As I headed home my head felt like it was spinning.
When I got home I made a list of what I needed to obtain in the search for Thomas Caxton, like Tom’s birth certificate, I checked the birth indexes online and found Tom had been born as Thomas Dennis Caxton, I then checked the death indexes and could not find a Thomas Dennis or Thomas D. Caxton listed, good sign he might still be alive I was thinking, next I checked the marriage indexes and found four Thomas D. Caxton’s listed from 1949 to 1964, so I ordered his birth certifcate and all the marriage certificates, one of those marriage certificates must surely be him I hoped.
After this I checked the Electoral Rolls online, this produced twenty Thomas D. Caxton’s all over England and Wales, he could be anyone of them or none of them, but I made a list of all of them.
I drafted a letter to send to all the Thomas D. Caxton’s but first I wanted to have Tom’s birth certificate before posting out any letters, the certificates might help me narrow down which Thomas he is, one of those marriage certificates just might be him and then I could check the Electoral Roll for his wife and will fingers crossed have the correct address on the Electoral Roll for Tom, saves me posting twenty letters. All I could do now is wait for those certificates to arrive.
In the meantime I wrote a short note to my neighbour Kevin and popped it under his door, I needed to change the battery in the smoke alarm, there is no way your would get me up a ladder. Kevin is twenty five, I spoke to him briefly when he first moved in to the flat upstairs and he told he worked as a labourer for a builder, I jokingly said to him “oh you can come and change my light bulbs then“ and he said to just let me know if I needed anything repaired in the flat, he was good with his hands, Kevin works during the week and is hardly ever at home on the weekends, he seems such a nice decent young man, the sort of boy a mother would be proud of, wish he was a bit closer to my age though, I could quite fancy him, is it ok to fancy your neighbour? I laughed to myself.
I am starting to have fantasies about my neighbour now, I was thinking to myself, um nice thought though, my very own toy boy, that would be interesting, think I am just feeling a bit, what is it called, horny, gee I need to get a life, or let me rephrase that, I need to get a man and have a damn good you know what, as I laughed out loud to myself.
Chapter 17
The next morning there was a note stuck under my door from Kevin saying he would pop in after work about 6.30pm, great I thought, I wonder if he would like to stay for dinner, maybe get a bottle of wine or two, should I get some condoms too? I was thinking, naughty girl Lindsay, now stop it I told myself, I was still having a fantasy about Kevin, poor boy, this cougar is on the prowl, he would probably run a mile if he thought I was even thinking about this, imagine his face if I even tried to seduce him, and I laughed about my wayward thoughts.
I was in the middle of making Spaghetti Bolognese, my own secret recipe, well not really a secret, I just made it up, tried following the recipe but somehow I went a bit wrong, looked alright though, when there was a knock on my door.
“sorry I’m late Lindsay, got held up tonight by traffic, its murder out there”
“no worries Kevin, have you stopped for something to eat, I have made Spaghetti Bolognese and as always I have made too much, still cannot work out how to cook for one”
“you sure?, I am starving”
Tip number one from a singleton who wants to seduce the good looking neighbour, keep a packet of opened condoms in your bathroom for emergencies, take one out the packet and throw it away or hide it, when he see’s the packet with one missing he will think your “up for it”, make sure you keep a bottle of wine for that moment an unexpected visitor arrives and then offer to cook him dinner, once he is in your flat, offer him some wine, make sure he drinks several glasses of it or drinks the whole bottle, you want to make him feel relaxed, and then sit real close to him on the sofa, do not forget to wear a low cut top or blouse so he can admire the view of your cleavage and suggest as he has had too much to drink then he should really stay the night, whilst sitting so close to him on the sofa slowly undo a button on your blouse giving him a better view and do not forget to wear that lace see-through bra that reveals all, men cannot resist boobs, one glimpse and they want it, and then lean across and whisper in his ear “would you like to stay tonight, condoms are in the bathroom cabinet, why don’t you go get one while I make my
self more comfortable in the bedroom” and make sure you give him a wink after saying this and a pout of the lips, if you want something girls you have to be direct and upfront, men are often not good at getting the hint or signals, tell it straight/
We sat and ate our dinner and Kevin talked about how work was going and how he wanted to give his job up working for a builder where he was a jack of all trades just about doing everything from tiling to roofing, and try something else, he was especially interested in photography and wanted to become a photographer, I thought wow I had no idea he was that way inclined you know artistic like, had always thought of him as a bit of a rough type, you know what men are like on building sites, real blokey blokes, but he had this softer side to him that I was quite impressed with.
Kevin lived by himself in his flat on the top floor, I asked if he thought of getting a flat mate to share?
“no I don’t think so, what happens if the other person is messy? Or brings all their friends round and you just want a quiet night in?”
“yes that’s true”, I said, and had thought of the same reasons for myself
“no I prefer it with just myself”
“so no girlfriend then Kev” I said, I was just making an enquiry that is all, no girlfriend means he might be gagging for some rompy pompy in the bedroom, I am naughty, I smiled to myself.
“don’t meet many girls on building sites, and the one’s I meet at the clubs with my mates, well they are a bit trashy at times, the way they dress with so little on and their boobs hanging out, looks a bit desperate to me, I prefer a woman who has got a bit of class” said Kevin, now I am wondering if I look desperate, do I look like I have class? I hoped so, I am certainly not a trashy type, I hoped, I really would not have a clue what I am.
“so you have any family around here then Kev”
“no I moved over here to Croydon because I kept getting more and more work this way so thought it best to live here, my folks live in Caversham”.
The Other Family Page 7
