Darling Mother grew more and more out of the world, but not badly unhappy – and knowing me sometimes. Her bed was moved to the one side of the yellow curtains, and the drawing-room side remained as usual. I slept across the wide foot of Mother's bed. If she stirred, I roused at once. I took Mother out in a wheelchair every fine day and had to have a little gate made at the stair foot to keep her from going up, as I could not watch her every moment, and she risked falling. The very kind doctor insisted that I could not go on without help, after years of this, and we were fortunate enough to be sent a young Irish nurse who came only for the day. She, withdrawing after the shock of Mother's refusal to return to her chair on the first walk without me and making a scene in one of the quiet streets, was sent back to me immediately by the old nurse who had first sent her. As I had not scolded or been angry but understood her feelings, we agreed on a week's trial. She was very successful in the best kindness, and Mother was well looked after. The nurse became such a real friend that she stayed with us to the end – and remained a friend, when she married. Her boy (of about 14, I think) came to stay with me at Orchill for a week's holiday, after being ill. The nurse and I kept up our letters, after her husband died, until she was killed in a bicycle accident.
Jack got enough leave to come home when Darling Mother died most peacefully. I had to go down into the town to register Mother's death on Christmas day '39.
DARLING MOTHER
Edith Blanche Pringle, daughter of Lt-Colonel John Henry Pringle and Georgiana Ramsbottom, great-granddaughter of Edward James Eliot and Lady Harriot Pitt (sister of William Pitt, Prime Minister of England). Married Henry Hastings Jauncey in 1885. They had four children: one stillborn son in 1886, George Pringle Jauncey in 1887 (who died, in 1888, at the age of eight months), John Henry Jauncey in 1889, and Eleanor Violet Jauncey (our EV) in 1890. Mother died two days before Christmas, on December 23, 1939, at Ashmead (her home in Ipswich). She was 89 years old.
JACK
Captain John Henry Jauncey, R.N., born in 1889, third child of Henry Hastings Jauncey and Edith Blanche Pringle. Great-great-grandson of Edward James Eliot and Lady Harriot Pitt (sister of William Pitt, Prime Minister of England). Married Muriel Charlie Dundas in 1923. Retired from the Royal Navy in 1932 but returned in 1939 for WWII, retiring again in 1946. Jack died on September 25, 1958, at the age of 69 years, of throat cancer.
EV
Eleanor Violet Jauncey, born in 1890, fourth child of Henry Hastings Jauncey and Edith Blanche Pringle. Great-great-granddaughter of Edward James Eliot and Lady Harriot Pitt (sister of William Pitt, Prime Minister of England). Eleanor died, unmarried, at the age of 95 years, on January 10, 1986.
ILLUSTRATIONS
1) Blanche and her grandson, Charles Eliot Jauncey (c. 1926)
2) Edith Blanche Jauncey (c. 1890)
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