"My biggest regret in emigrating is that Maureen, Barbara and Darryl did not have the opportunity to live near and get to know my or Frank's parents, their grandparents. I tried to make up for the loss by saving up and sending ticket money for my mam and dad, Nanna and Dadda, to come to North Carolina for four months. Darryl was born in January 1962; they came in October of '62 and left in February 1963 after Darryl's first birthday."
--Joan Shelton
Maureen, who was 11 at the time, remembers:
"When we lived in our first real home on Holland Drive in Statesville, Nanna and Dadda came to visit. They flew from London to New York on a prop plane, and Mam and Dad drove all the way to New York City from North Carolina to pick them up. The mother of a neighbor, an elderly lady, stayed with us three kids."
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| Passport photo for Edward Albert Strutt (Dadda) and Hannah Sophia Strutt (Nanna) |
Bit of history: The aerogram was largely popularized by its use during the Second World
War. Lieutenant Colonel R. E. Evan proposed that a lightweight self-sealing letter card that weighed
only 1/10 oz be adopted by the British Army for air mail purposes.
During the four months Dad stayed with us, he did not go to the barber's again, but once in a while came out of the bathroom with his hair all chopped up (he would hack at it with a razor blade), and I would have to sit him down, tie a towel around his neck, and straighten it out. Mam would say, 'You old fool!'
I didn't have a pram for Darryl, so Aunty Gladys, Frank's sister, lent me her's. It was a big thing which she'd had painted a cream color and reupholstered in turquoise. It served its purpose. While they were visiting, Nanna and Dadda took Darryl out every day in the pram for a walk around the block.
One day I walked into the house and Nanna was holding Darryl under the arms. She said, 'Stand still,' gave Darryl some encouragement, and he came weaving across to me, toddling and stumbling, but with a big smile on his face. Nanna and Dadda had been training him when I wasn't about.
Each afternoon, I would take them for a ride, showing them around Statesville. Their favorite place to go was an old cemetery, Oakwood, where there were graves of soldiers from the Civil War. A grove of lovely old trees lined the road, and since it was October when they arrived, the trees were in all their autumn splendor. They were in awe of the golden archway formed by the trees; we would drive up and down the road, admiring the glorious colors. They never tired of seeing those trees.
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| Oakwood Cemetery, established 1887, Statesville, NC |
They spent Darryl's first Christmas and first birthday (January 30, 1963) with us and then left for England in early February. The family back in England tried to get them to stay longer as England was in the grip of a terrible, icy cold winter, but they were homesick and ready to go."
--Joan Shelton
"When we drove Nanna and Dadda to the airport in Charlotte for their trip home, Dadda was crying, and I will always remember him waving a white hankie from the window of the plane. We stood out on an observation deck, watching and waving back, until the plane took off.."
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