Would you be interested in selling me this umbrella? I’d be delighted to own an umbrella from my great-grand father’s (and my grandmas) shop.

Brenda what’s your mum’s name, I’ll ask my mum if she remembers her.

D

E. Olive (formerly E. Olivenstein) is my great grandfather.

I would love to buy one of these umbrellas if anyone has one to sell. Please contact me.

Many thanks

At the entry to 23 there was a long passage.
Nana used it to make wine. Going up the stairs
was Zaida’s embroidery factory to the left and to
the right the family rooms.

I thought all houses were like this. Zaida
made embroidered runners with curly flower
patterns.

At the top of the house was a utility room with
a stone wash tub and a mangle.

When we stayed as children the brewers drays
woke me up with the hoods on the cobbles.

There was a brass plate on the door which I still
have. It said M Rich.

My parents got married from there. The wedding
certificate says the bride is ‘of the same address’
My mother says that was because her mother
had moved to Cambridge so she had nowhere
else to stay.

Nana made cheese which she hung over a tap
in the kitchen in muslin bags. She was a
pupil teacher and came from Odessa. Zaida
came from Vienna.