A few years ago, I wrote a blog about my dad’s wedding shoes for the Museum. It seems fair that this time I write about my mum.
My trainers are a favourite old pair which I use to potter around the garden, and I just can’t seem to get rid of. I’ve worn them on many trips abroad and visited many different places. For this reason, they remind me of my mum. After her first visit to New York in the 1990s she returned wearing jeans and trainers with a fondness for chewing gum! Which wasn’t really like her at all. I remember her reflecting – I wish I had travelled more.
After coming to England in the 1960s and settling into life in Aylesbury mum found a job at Stoke Mandeville Hospital working in the staff dining room. She wanted to become a nurse, but a Matron told her she wouldn’t be able to do all the training and would be missed in the dinning room. I think because of that she never held us back from anything we wanted to do and all the places we wanted to visit. Mum would want all Black people to keep, Walking Forward.
Ann Alphonse
