OUR MAM by Jean Cooper
Sometimes it is the very simplicity of the tale which makes the reading
worthwhile, and this is such a case.
Jean Cooper’s Mam, Violet May Coulton, lived to be 100 years of age and the story spanning
those years from 1905 to 2006 is told here via memories and photographs. She
was one of seven children and the challenges she faced, along with so many
women of her generation, would seem extraordinary to most younger women in
Britain today. Life was often hard and cruel, with true poverty and little
love.
At the age of twelve Violet went to work during the First World War. Then
followed several different jobs including being a scullery maid at Egerton
Lodge, Melton Mowbray, where very many years later she would return as an
esteemed guest, finally able to see what was upstairs! This in itself shows how
considerably times changed during one lifetime. Nevertheless, all those years
of poverty and hard work at a young age, then the Depression and no work and
living through two world wars, never truly dampened the spirit of this
indomitable woman.
The stories remembered in this book by the author and her two sisters, Audrey
and Nancy, reflect the history of one life which itself reflects the history of
Britain over those hundred years, and they will be an inspiration to all who
read them.
Jean Cooper
The author was born in Burton-on-Trent and left school at the age of 14 to work
for Woolworths. She was a manageress at RHM Foods in Wimbush for 26 years.
She decided to write about her mother when she discovered how much people liked
to hear the stories she would tell them, and in this she has been helped by
Audrey and Nancy, her two sisters, who also had many memories about their
mother.
Jean Cooper has travelled abroad in many different countries and has also been
a choral and light music singer for many years.
