Two Close September Sisters - Sepia Saturday

Continuing Sepia Saturday's October theme of Portraits, I feature the life of two September sisters - my mother Kathleen Danson, and my aunt Edith Danson of Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire born one year and one week apart in September  1907 and 1908 -one of the oldest photographs in my family collection.

 

Edith and Kathleen Danson - late 1908



Playing in the garden - Edith (seated) & Kathleen, c.1914

 

Edith and Kathleen, 1916.

 

 

Aunt Edith was the eldest born on 2nd September 1907. I think of her as one of line of "Feisty Danson Females" and she was fond of regaling me with stories of the family and her life in teaching. She was the only one in the family to win a scholarship to Fleetwood Grammar School, riding the four miles on her bike in all weathers. She became a teacher at Burn Naze School in Thornton (a poor area of town at the time), kept home for her father and brother, travelled widely, even to Russia in Iron Curtain days, and married for the first time at the aged 73. You can tell from her photographs that she was someone who enjoyed life.   Aunt Edith, was, of course, my godmother and took on the role with great gusto.



Her sister Kathleen (my mother) was born 8th September 1908 and was more reserved.   At the age of 14, she was apprenticed to a local tailor - and was still making her own clothes in her 80s.  She was also skilled  In a wide range of crafts . I always think her motto could be “Happinessis Stitching”.  

Both Edith and Kathleen enjoyed fashion, and made their own clothes on a treadle machine (their house did not have electricity until 1958) and regularly went dancing at the Winter Gardens, and the Tower Ballrooms in Blackpool - where my mother met my father. 

Kathleen & Edith

Kathleen & Edith



Both sisters  were  accomplished at needlework and crafts, with Aunt Edith also a talented artist.  and both , like many of their generation were skilled  bakers. 

   

Stitched by my mother

 

Painting by my Aunt Edith

Collage by my mother

Who could be my mother's bridesmaid in 1938, but ~Aunt Edith.   Forty-three years later, in 1981, the roles were reversed when Edith married. 

Kathleen & Edith



  Kathleen & Edith





 Both sisters left me with a wonderful legacy on how to get the most out of life.  I  have a lot to thank them for. 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs.

 

 

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