I purchased my latest find due to the sentiment that the item held.
I was up in town with a couple of friends I was going to a gig with later that evening. We were all quite tight for cash, but as we had to buy travel cards to get to the gig we thought we might as well make the most of them and decided to head up early.
We decided to wonder round Camden with the aim to find my friend a new pair of brogues, as despite resuscitating his old ones several times with goodness knows how much super glue, they had finally died!
With my friend being quite picky it was turning out to be an unsuccessful trip. After cutting his losses we decided to leave the Camden stables and trot on down towards the charity shops in Mornington crescent.
After several disappointing rummaging sessions in several shops I came across a vintage ‘Thomas Pink’ blue and white striped shirt. After trying it on I turned to my friends and said, “what you reckon, buy?” to which they responded, “Is that not the shirt you were already wearing?”
I rolled my eyes and decided to buy it anyway, on the basis that the shirt I had actually already been wearing was one of my favourite shirts and you can never have to many of your favourite shirts!
As I went up to the till and got my card out to pay (yep this charity shop did accept cards for payments under £5), I caught a glimpse of something that grabbed my attention. On a shelf next to the till was a book ‘Winnie the Pooh: Complete Collection of Stories and Poems’. Just as pooh bear would climb any tree for his fix of honey I was determined to climb the walls to get this book (luckily for me there was a step ladder). The item was quite pricey (for a charity shop) but it didn’t matter. Thinking to myself it’s all for charity, I decided to buy it and this is why……….
As a child I lived in a small 2up 2down house in South East London. One of the walls in the houses hallway was covered with framed postcards of images from the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ stories. My mum first started collecting them when I was young. The first few were bought by my Granddad,
My Granddad was of Sri-Lankan origin, and before meeting my Nan had children with a woman in Sri-Lanka. Due to health problems, he was unable to go over there
to see them as adults. So as soon as the unexpected and good news came that the doctors had given him the all clear to fly, he booked his flights.
With his health deteriorating, and having survived several heart attacks there was a weird atmosphere surrounding his trip. My Family all kind of just knew it would be the last time they would see him, but it was something everyone knew he had to do.
So the flight was book and they took him to the airport with plenty of time to kill. This was in order to make sure he didn’t miss his flight and that there were no complications due to his health.
As you do with all the extra time you have in airports, they decided to look around the shops. This is where my mum saw the first few ‘Winnie the Pooh’ cards she had collected. My Granddad approached her and said “Let me buy that for Tor.” (That’s me by the way). My mum replying “Don’t be silly its only a few pence” to which he responded “Please let me do one last thing for him.” After he said that she couldn’t stop him. He bought the cards and as he grabbed the receipt the announcement came saying his plane was ready to be boarded. He handed my mum the cards, said his goodbyes and headed towards his gate.
Sure enough it turned out to be the last the family ever saw of him alive, he died whilst out there.
My mum continued to collect the cards until the walls were filled, but over the years through several house moves they have be stashed away in storage. I felt if I bought the book I would still have them in a bit more of a compact format that I could always have to hand.
