To celebrate my Mum’s 80th – I wrote a little play about her life – which my nieces and nephews performed whilst on our summer family holiday together. We had a lot of fun doing this! Best of all was working with my niece Kate, who loves drama, she helped with the script and was co-director.
I kept the stage directions in the below and have shared some pictures:
‘Once upon a time there was a cute little girl called Rosalind, with a short bob with her fringe pinned to one side. She had a brother 2 years older than her called John, and they lived in Tooting and would walk to and from primary school. (Sienna & Rory?)
To help her get to sleep every night, the young Rosalind was joined by a teddy bear (teddy bear is thrown on?) called Mary, and a tartan umbrella engraved with the face of a Scotsman by the name of Nobby (can we find something to throw on?)
Although she was shy she made quite a few local friends. One of which she visited quite often. That particular friend had quite a few aunties which Ros would watch her friend greet at the door. Because of this Ros developed the habit of opening the front door and saying ‘hello auntie’, when there was no-one there, much to her parents’ amusement.
She also amused her parents with her ballet which she took up at age eight. [Izzy enters – insert dance – to the tune of the sugarplum fairy}
She continued doing ballet for the first half of secondary school. At school she excelled in English and French but hated needlework, but this did come to be useful in later years. Although it was an all-girls school one particular one man caught her eye. He was tall, dark haired and handsome. She even had his picture on her bedroom wall. His name was drumroll please…. CLIFF RICHARD! [insert Haydn singing ‘Summer Holiday’ as Cliff Richard]
At the age of 16 the young Rosalind saw some leaflets on display outside Hyde Park chapel. The sign ‘visitors welcome’ and a leaflet about eternal families made her curious, and she attended a fireside with a friend. It was then that she caught the eye of a 16-year-old Alan Carter. Rosalind started having lessons with the missionaries and attending church, where one Sunday in the Sunday School lesson she noticed Alan striding across the room. Their first date was attending a baptism together, and Alan walked Rosalind home. From then on, the couple were inseparable, attending all church activities together, and spending many evenings and weekends working at the building site for what was to be the Wandsworth Chapel.
[Grown up Rosalind – Leah to mime the below)
After she finished school age 16 Rosalind attended 6th form where she studied what’s called ‘Office Practice’ including shorthand and typing. This gave her the skills to get her first job at the Association of British Tool Makers. She quickly discovered it was boring and she moved on after 6 months. Another assignment working for the government involved typing up the Prime Minister’s Questions for Question Time. (exit Leah)
Some things you didn’t know about teenage Rosalind:
- Ros had the nick-name ‘Floss’
- She sang in a folk group with Alan and two other friends
- Like most teenage girls in the swinging 60’s – she wore mini-dresses (Immy walks past with a 60’s style mini dress on)
- She had beautiful long auburn hair, (Dan walks past and does a hair-toss? Dan?) and on her wedding day she wore a form-fitting dress made by her mother Isabel, and had a beautiful beehive up-do with small flowers in her hair (can we improv this?)
Now we all know that Rosalind and Alan went on to have seven children (Emily walks past with ball up jumper), which is why we are all here today. But there may be some other things about Rosalind that you don’t know, and we’re here to enlighten you… (another drumroll…)
Rosalind is a woman of many talents…
Rosalind developed many skills to feed her family. She became an expert gardener, and would spend hours working in the garden, having traded her 70’s mini-dresses for the Laura Ashley look, creating her own style – wellington boots with a floral dress.
Rosalind raised her family on home-made jam and home-grown vegetables all year round from garden produce. (She was the original ‘trad-wife’). She also had her signature dishes from her time in Gibraltar, where she did a Spanish cookery class. Brasso Guitano anyone? One year she got so carried away making Christmas puddings that one got forgotten and was discovered in the garage in August. So that was pudding for the evening, because Christmas pudding never goes off!
Rosalind has many artistic talents, and at one time took evening classes in Interior design. Later she got involved with home staging and became a House Doctor like the TV show, advising people on how to stage their homes. This was much appreciated by Daniel & Holly when on their annual trips she would help transform a room each visit.
Rosalind was always a very active member of the Relief Society, always attending home-making activities. She was always keen to try out any new recipes learnt at homemaking on her unsuspecting family. (Izzy and Kate people act this out – one cooking and serving and one tastes it and falls over…) She was faithful at doing her visiting teaching, also serving as Relief Society President at one time.
Rosalind’s artistic flair extended to flower arranging – and she did lavish arrangements for London Temple Visitors Centre and for some weddings. In recent years dedicates her time Family History submitting many names to the Temple.
In recent years Rosalind has become a globe-trotting grandmother. She has travelled to such far-flung destinations as Dubai, Barcelona, Geneva, Croatia, Seychelles, Venice, trips to Finland, even visiting the exotic destination of …… Kuwait? And this is as well as our fabulous family holidays to Italy, Girona, Portugal, and France.
But there is one more thing that I haven’t yet mentioned, and that is Rosalind’s love of the ballet. Rosalind has enjoyed many years in her adult life of attending ballet classes and performing in recitals. To commemorate this remarkable achievement, of being one of the oldest members of a ballet class, and her years of dedication to this art form, we’d like to re-create one of Rosalind’s moments, when she performed the ‘Highland Fling’ at the Wandsworth Stake Gold and Green Ball. To help with this we have, all the way from Scotland, the Clan Carter Boys Dance Troupe….
Thank-you all for watching. We’d like to close with all the grandchildren on stage to sing big Happy Birthday to Nanny Rosalind.’ (accompanied by Haydn)
So after the performance ended (with the highlight of my nephews dancing the Highland Fling) – my mum said – I can do it better than that! And she did!!!!
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