Nellie's Story: A Life of Service
Genre: Kindle Edition
Brand: Léonie Press
Author: Elizabeth Ellen Osborne
Price: £0.00
Elizabeth Ellen Osborne was born at Shipbrook, near Northwich, Cheshire, in 1914. Her father was an agricultural worker and the family lived in a tied cottage. When she left school at 14 she went to work at the bottom of the household pecking order as a 'between maid' at the local Rectory. Two years later she became a kitchen maid and after various other posts was employed as a lady's companion/help.
Following her marriage she was a nurse, a 'dinner lady' and a much-loved foster mother. As a Royal British Legion welfare officer she rode round Mid-Cheshire on a 90cc motorcycle until she was 80 years old. Her life has been one of service to her employers, to her large extended family and to the community.
Nellie also had a phenomenal photographic memory and her recollections of her early life paint a vivid picture of times which have gone for ever, when infant mortality was high, water was fetched from a spring, school discipline was brutal and her mother received second-hand clothes in lieu of wages. She describes the flashes and meadows, flowers and birds of her rural surroundings and can even list the names of all the other children at Davenham School in the early Twenties.
Her experiences in service evoke the days when the 'toffs' could not exist without an army of servants, toiling away for long hours and earning a pittance. But Nellie never let them break her spirit.
Following her marriage she was a nurse, a 'dinner lady' and a much-loved foster mother. As a Royal British Legion welfare officer she rode round Mid-Cheshire on a 90cc motorcycle until she was 80 years old. Her life has been one of service to her employers, to her large extended family and to the community.
Nellie also had a phenomenal photographic memory and her recollections of her early life paint a vivid picture of times which have gone for ever, when infant mortality was high, water was fetched from a spring, school discipline was brutal and her mother received second-hand clothes in lieu of wages. She describes the flashes and meadows, flowers and birds of her rural surroundings and can even list the names of all the other children at Davenham School in the early Twenties.
Her experiences in service evoke the days when the 'toffs' could not exist without an army of servants, toiling away for long hours and earning a pittance. But Nellie never let them break her spirit.