My Mother
Hazel Elizabeth Perks :
Born July 1920
My Mother’s Writings
My mother was Hazel Elizabeth Perks, daughter of John Perks and Mary Elizabeth Perks, born in Aston in Birmingham in July 1920.
She met Ronald Edwards on a cycling holiday on the Isle of Wight in 1938. They married in 1939 and they had two children, Raymond (born April 1948) and Leslie (born September 1943, now living in Chicago). Their marriage endured for 73 years during which time they shared interests in music, crosswords, reading, rambling and travelling round Europe camping in many different countries over many years.
For a significant number of years Hazel rode around on a Lambretta scooter on which she carried all sorts of things – once she came back from a shop, many miles away, with a couple of goldfish in the rear container……they seemed to deal with their adventure very well and survived many years in the garden pond.
Hazel was a strong-minded woman (it ran in her family) and fiercely independent – which had its implications for relationships on a number of fronts. Growing up in the 1920’s and 1930’s and living through five years of World War 2 forged women of steel!
Over the course of her married life Hazel pursued her interest in writing and had some short stories read out on BBC radio as well as publishing some of her poetry and a couple of books….
War Among the Landladies (Book) (published 1985 – with dedications to Leslie and myself)
Awakening (Poetry) Poems for the Nineties (published 1992 and dedicated to me – although I was not aware of this until much later)
War among the Ruins (Book) (published 1996)
Pick and Mix – Poems for Today (published 1997)
Right into her 90’s Hazel gave presentations to the University of the Third Age on various artists and famous people, with some assistance from Ronald who helped her with some visual aids.
Mum often used to say to me when I was younger that Dad would not live to a great age as no one in his family had done so. When she passed in 2012, aged 93, it was to be 3 years before Dad passed in 2015, aged 96 – and this did bring a wry smile as I remembered her words.
