There was another side to Judy’s life history that has been omitted in the narrative so far.
Judy was never entirely defined by work, even though this gave her wide scope to exercise the abilities she enjoyed.
In 1997 Judy and David decided to go to Skegness for the day. They had never been there before, and had enough of the pleasures of Austria, and of visiting hospitals all over the world. They passed a farm selling day-old chicks
David: When I retire I fancy keeping hens
Judy: So do I
This was a complete surprise. The only pet they had ever had was Phil’s tortoise. Who escaped. But cast your mind back to when she was 10, and spent the Summer on the farm on the Isle of Man. And collected the eggs. And milked the cows. The glory of those days was still with her. David retained a similar memory of staying on his Aunt Doll’s small holding in mid-Devon.
In early October 1997 a shed appeared in the garden , surrounded by a fence. On October 5th the Company Accountant made a surprise trip with her two little girls to a farm in N Yorkshire. On October 6th Judy was invited to inspect her 6 Black Rock hens in their hi-tech shed with lighting installed by Andy. The lighting went on early in the morning, off during the day, and then on again until the hens had their 18 hours of light. This was a total success. She fed the hens, clucked back at them, and changed the straw, and looked for the eggs each morning. Ah, she looked. David went down to Totnes a few days before Christmas to visit Auntie Vi. Until then they had not laid a single egg. The day he left she found an egg in the straw. It was obviously a fix. The next day she found 3 eggs. The next day 5.
You cannot imagine how much pleasure this gave. 6 black rock hens will produce on average 5 eggs each day. Those of you who are good at Maths will be able to work out that is 35 a week. Rather more than they could eat. They therefore formed a cooperative with other members of Buss, and Russell the next door neighbour, to spread the cost, and to distribute the eggs. The star of the flock was Betty, and she was owned by the girls who brought the hens home. When a fox got in to the garden and set about killing all the hens indiscriminately, it was Betty alone who managed to fly up to the top of a post and survive. There were other incidents of mass slaughter in the flock. The fencing got taller.
Chickens beat dogs hands down. Over the next few years Judy travelled all over the country (well, as far as Evesham) looking at different breeds. They bought an incubator and hatched their own. The sight of a mother hen looking after her chicks beats all other pleasures of the world. They acquired 3 ducks. All this animal husbandry did her the world of good. Soon after starting David calculated that after about 6 months in business each egg was costing £1.50 once you have counted in the cost of housing and fencing and feeding and lighting and … Money well spent.
David’s Auntie Vi was living on her own in Totnes in Devon following the death of his mother in 1992. Auntie Vi was an unusual woman. She could be a little unnerving for people who did not know her. She spoke her mind, in ignorance of social conventions rather than asserting herself against the world. Judy’s mother had fully persuaded Auntie Vi that her daughter was heroic – a topic she liked to expand on to Judy’s great embarrassment. This led Auntie Vi to make the completely innocent comment to Judy once how much she admired “cripples like you“. And Judy loved her. They got on extraordinarily well together, for much the same reason. Neither of them felt threatened by the other. David eventually persuaded Auntie Vi to leave Devon and come up to Bradford to live near them. She was getting increasingly deaf, and he found her a flat in a sheltered housing complex. They visited her each day. Every Wednesday Auntie Vi took Judy out for a treat. That is, Judy drove round to her apartment and drove her into the centre of Bradford where they would get a cup of tea in Kirkgate Market. Judy could do no wrong.
One day in early March 2004 Judy went with David to visit her cousin Peter. The same one who thought he had given her arthritis by dropping a stone on her when she was a child. Peter had got hold of some duck eggs, and gave them to David to see if he could hatch them. Back home they went into an incubator. It takes 4 weeks for duck eggs to hatch. 2 weeks later David was rushed into hospital and stayed in Intensive Care for 4 weeks with an infection. Peter was now convinced that he had given him Bird ‘Flu from the eggs. Bird ‘Flu was all the rage at the time. He had not only given Judy arthritis, but tried to kill her husband as well. The full story of Judy’s experiences during David’s illness is given elsewhere When you have a spare hour you can read it in all its detail. Remember to have a packet of tissues with you. It will not spoil the story too much to know that he survived, and got back home determined to recover.
Judy then rose to the occasion magnificently. She supervised his training programme. For the first week she walked with him out of the house and 50 yards down the street. Then all round the street. Then she took him on the bus to go for a walk in Calderdale. Then round a pond in the park. Then round a reservoir. She was amazed that for the first 2 weeks she could walk better than he could. It had never happened before, and would never happen again.
For her pièce de résistance she took him out walking round Malham Tarn. All the way. This must have cost her dearly, because at that time her toes were becoming as distorted as her fingers, but she did it. She never mentioned her feet. He enjoyed the walk so much, and could not understand why she did not want to do more. It was very useful to be able to say years later when she felt that she was a liability “You took me all the way round Malham Tarn. Was I a liability?” “Of course not“. “Why did you do it?”
The correct response to this, of course, should have been “Because I loved you“. Now here’s a thing. In all their 55 years of courtship and marriage she never once said “I love you” to him. Maybe it was too personal. Maybe she didn’t.
Later, when David was coming back with Not the 1st Bridlington Scout Group after climbing a mountain and sleeping in a cave, one of the parents of the young people, Lesley, was asking questions about his private life she had no business to ask. She was Best Friend, and in other circumstances was his Assistant Scout Leader. This was not a Scout event. She could not believe him when he said he would never tell Judy he loved her. If it was true, then saying it didn’t make it more true, and if it wasn’t it would be just so many words.
They were a funny couple.
However, in the last year of her life when she felt she was losing control, he told her on several occasions that he loved her. It was so obviously true, but perhaps she needed a bit of good news.
David’s encounter with death in hospital had aged her 10 years. She had found the responsibility of dealing with the hens and the ducks exhausting. Especially the ducks. She called in Russell’s help each evening when it was time to round the ducks up. Hens are amazingly sensible. When it gets dark they have the wit to come in and fly up to roost without being bidden. Ducks prefer to play out. This is all very well, but the fox will get you if you do that. They do not go willingly to bed.
The garden was too big. The birds were too great a responsibility.It was time for one last move. For several months they visited the area around Settle looking for a suitable house, but found none. Then Russell suggested they should try the E Coast. The requirement was a little retirement bungalow with no garden but access to an allotment. They stumbled across a 4 bedroomed house which doubled up as a b&b when it was time to pay the rates. It overlooked the sea. A bit.
jbrip 