Kate Ker
My blogs
| Gender | Female |
|---|---|
| Industry | Arts |
| Location | Surrey, United Kingdom |
| Introduction | This is a huge adventure for me. I am off to Canada and China, following my grandparents' trail. I've wanted to do this since I was 12! Granny lived until she was nearly 101, dying in 1969 when I was 15. As I was "growing up", she was "growing down", that was the family joke. Sometimes her brain "went on holiday" during the day, when she was convinced it was still wartime, so when we visited I would help her draw the blackout curtains to her precise instructions. On my 13th birthday she gave me a "pretty frock, dear". My parents prepared me for this so that I could arrange my face into the appropriate expression. I unwrapped my present in front of her. "How lovely, Granny. Can I try it on?" I reappeared to show off this navy blue creation with its white collar and cuffs, its long-zipped front, its tough, stain repellant nylon ... it was an overall. She had chosen it herself from the village stores. She was tough, resourceful, clever, fiercely loyal, stubborn, rather grand, and as I read her memoirs, years later, I discovered more. She did an amazing thing. She saved hundreds of lives. This is about her, really, not about me. |