I grew up in a middle class home (or 'upper middle class' as my mum would say) in Cheshire, England.
According to my parents, (which embarrasses my father somewhat each time mum mentions it- So please forgive me dad, for including this in my blog), we are related to Winston Spencer Churchel and Princess Diana (Spencer). (My son keeps telling me how much I look like Diana, which I wish were true, but really, being surrounded by Filipino brown faces, flat noses and black hair, just being white makes me resemble Princess Di to most. I assure you, being white and female is where the resemblance ends!! I'm sure you agree?).
Anyway, my father's grandmother was a 'Spencer' who was cut off from the family as a result of her love and devotion for a commoner. She married the commoner (an inventor I'm told) and my grandmother was born to them. When my grandmother was around two years old, her father died. The family did make an attempt to help my great grandmother, and offered her a small house. She apparently turned it down, insulted when she found it contained no piano!!!
According to what I'm told, she earned her living playing the piano for the silent movies in the theatre where my grandmother (and Julie Andrews) spent her childhood.
And here ends my claim to fame.
My grandmother married Sydney Hailes, who was a plumber for a small company and earned a good living. My father went on to become the managing director of that company where he worked for more than 40 years.
On the other side of the spectrum, my mother's family came from Jarrow, which is known in British history as being the most impoverished mining community of the UK of that time. My grandmother (one of the most wonderful people I ever had the privilege of knowing) left home at 16 and moved to Cheshire to serve as a cook in what was called 'being in the service' at that time (which was the politically correct term for 'servants' in that day!!).
She used to cook and clean houses in the posh part of Bowdon, never dreaming that one day her daughter would own a home there.
Mum and dad were high school sweethearts and went on to have my two brothers, Steve and Paul and me. Imagine, this snob from Cheshire ended up here in the Philippines!!!
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