I want to start off by talking about my great grandparents. I never knew my great grandmother Ruth. Especially since she died in 1975. But my grandmother would talk about her a lot when I was child. She would talk about how she was always waiting for them at home with their food on the table, how even up until her very last breathe, she was a firecracker and a pure optimist. I remember my grandmother saying she had a heart of gold, but she could also be firm when she wanted to be. She used to always say if you didn’t eat your vegetables, they would be waiting for you in the morning, something my parents used to say with me and my brother up until we were 10 years old.
The biggest bombshell I found out in my family was that my great grandmother Ruth was actually in the work house as a child. When she was six weeks old, her mother died quiet suddenly, and her father couldn’t look after her due to his job. Thus, she was placed into a work house. Luckily for her, her aunt came to pick her up and raised her as her own child. My grandmother told me that Ruth used to get bullied at school due to her having a different last name to all her cousins, so one day she came home in tears and asked her aunt if she was her mother. Her aunt replied, no, but Im just as good as your mother.
My great grandad Robert, or Bob as I knew him, Peckett on the other hand was a quiet man, well he was from what I can remember. He died when I was 10 years old. I can still remember the moment my mother told me he died to this day. I never really knew him, his later years were spent in a care home, due to my grandparents not being able to look after him like they used to. In his life, he was married twice, had four children with my grandmother Ruth and carried several jobs. When he was younger, he was enlisted to join the army during the Second World war, but it became apparent from the start he had problems with his feet. My grandmother didn’t know what was wrong truly, but the army insisted my grandfather Bob had his big toes removed so he could march, something he refused to have done. This led to him being dishonourably discharged. After the army, he went on to be a couch and a wagon driver, something he had been doing before.
However, Robert and Ruth divorced sometime in the 1960’s, leading Robert to marry Gladys Nicholson, a woman I had the pleasure of calling my great grandmother. Most of the memories I have of her, are in their caravan, in a local holiday spot near Hartlepool. Sadly she died in 2005, only a few years before my grandad Bob. However, I know for certain, she was the voice behind the spectacular garden my grandfather Bob kept. Even after she died, he kept that garden immaculate, up until the day he couldn’t anymore. I do want to state that even though Ruth and Robert were divorced, they stayed friendly up until she died. They always had each others back, that is something I find wonderful.
The Peckett Family Tree 