A Sadder Memory

A Memory of Law.

The year I spent at Law Junction was, on the whole, a fairly happy one – except that in the winter of 1961 my mum became seriously ill and was admitted to Law Hospital. Sadly, she died there in April. Unfortunately, I never received any time off to cope with bereavement – it was business as usual – and entered the booking office a few days later to light the fire. The booking clerk mentioned my tragic loss to the relief stationmaster who was writing in a ledger at the time. The relief stationmaster never looked up from the page, but simply muttered, “ashes to ashes and dust to dust” and carried on writing, much to the shock and embarrassment of the booking clerk. Was the stiff upper lip culture of the time the reason for the relief stationmaster’s apparent insensitivity? I’ll never know the answer to that one…

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