Backyard Jeweller

Diamond necklace in the early morning light,
Transformed into filigree and silvered by the midday sun.
There on a side strand, admiring what she's spun,
Sits Arachne, - waiting..............waiting.
JB

TEANNIE

When Eartha Kitt died in December 2008 her obituatists wrote of her resentment at being 'given away by her mother, forced to leave their home on a cotton plantation and live with an aunt in New York's Harlem'. One could be forgiven for wondering if it were the 'giving away' or the horrendous environmental shock of which she was resentful.

I immediately recalled my maternal grandmother's childhood when she left her Aberdeenshire roots. Christina Pirie, always 'Teannie' to the family, bore no resentment to her adored parents for being 'taken away' from them (as she always referred to it) nor to the childless aunt and uncle who 'took' her to live at their home in Bootle which was not far from the docks and about 4 miles north of Liverpool's city centre.

Born in 1871 Teannie was the 8th child of John and Catherine Pirie of Tweeddale where her father farmed 74 acres in the parish of Kinkell. Teannie had enjoyed the happiest early childhood surrounded by her loving family and the Aberdeenshire countryside. She found no joy living as an only child in alien urban surroungings. Her guardians were not accustomed to the ways of children, especially one who had previously only known life in the countryside. There was no porridge on the menu at number 28 Campbell Street, - instead it was bread and warm milk for breakfast taken in the basement of the stern house. Passers-by on the pavement above could peer in through the kitchen window and see the child struggling to swallow the contents of the bowl in front of her. One such was a classmate who would later announce at school "I saw you eating your 'pobs' this morning!"

Once a year Teannie and her aunt journied to the Aberdeenshire farm where they spent the Summer holidays. Came the dreaded day of return to Lancashire and the child secreted herself in one of the farm's many hiding-places in the hopes of being left behind, - but she was always eventually discovered. (The photograph shows Teannie during one of her 'holidays' standing centre surrounded by her family)

On the 4th May 1886 when Queen Victoria visited Liverpool, Teannie was there to see her getting into an open carriage and would later describe Her Majesty as 'a little lady with a parasol'.

As the years passed, Teannie Pirie, having done well at school, started to train in teaching. Aged 19 she and her guardians had moved to 57 Talbot Street, away from the docks and more towards the city. Miss Pirie had attained the position of Assistant Teacher. Two years later, fully qualified, she returned to Aberdeenshire and held the post of Teacher at Rathen school. This was a time of her life that she would later describe as one of the happiest and most carefree. In the village of Rathen she lodged at The Manse with the Rev and Mrs Kellas, but every school holiday was spent with her family back at the farm near Inverueie.