Threads & yarns. Georgina Bottley.

Threads and yarns

London : Wellcome Trust, 2011.

1 encoded audio file (68:07 min.) + 1 PDF transcript.

01:08:00

Wellcome Trust, 2011

Some restrictions.

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No derivatives 3.0 Unported

In English.

Interview took place on 2nd June 2011

This recording is from a series of 8, which were captured by a team of interviews for the Wellcome Trust's 75th anniversary celebrations. Two day-long workshops were held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in May 2011. These were attended by seniors from the London Borough of Camden and textile design students from Central St Martin s College of Art and Design. Seniors and students worked individually to create woven flowers, whilst engaging together in conversation around the themes of health and wellbeing. These intergenerational conversations were audio recorded and formed one part of the project s narrative component. Seniors were also invited to record a story or anecdote relating to their personal experiences of health and wellbeing, in shorter one to one interviews, called Threads. These took place throughout both workshops and were recorded in a separate interviewing space. They were conducted using an oral history approach, with an emphasis on active listening and self-narration. Five of these Threads have been submitted to the Wellcome Library. The three oral history interviews submitted were carried out with seniors in the weeks following the workshops. These more extended narratives, called Yarns, were recorded by the project s Oral History Lead, using a life story approach.

Interview: Georgina was born in 1933 at St Mary's Hospital, Archway, London. She recounts how she was born 1 month after term and she was born in a 'shroud' (the amniotic sac intact), which was given to one of the nurses for good luck as her boyfriend was a sailor. She reminisces about her war-time experience of evacuation and her childhood awareness of the German bombing campaign. She returns to the loss of her two young brothers and recollects being in the hospital, although children were not allowed in the wards. Her father was in the gunnery in the war. Georgina had several other siblings; she remembers her last sibling being born, Ninny. This last birth was traumatic and later resulted in her mother haemorrhaging after she was discharged, then having an emergency hysterectomy from which she was not expected to recover. Georgina is asked about her memories of the family doctor; she recalls going to the surgery but little about the doctor himself. One of the childhood illnesses she remembers is measles. Georgina remembers being liberally painted with calomine lotion. When the family was ill, a member of the family was given onion porridge. Also, goose fat and brown paper was used for bronchitis. When her father was discharged from the army, he was prescribed cod liver and malt, which was considered a treat by the children. Several children on their street contracted polio. She mentions that cancer and TB were rarely discussed. Georgina explains that her mother was very open-minded and had a book about pregnancy which was then shared amongst friends. Georgina refers to the wartime diet being bland , although she doesn t remember going hungry. She comments on the freedom she had as a child. She had a grumbling appendix, which resulted in an appendectomy and a long stay in hospital. She had two children and then discovered she had cervical cancer, which was treated surgically and again, required a long stay in hospital. Later, she had a hysterectomy. She returns to one of her young brothers who contracted TB and was sent away to a sanatorium. She talks about a miscarriage, then the different employment between having her children. Strangely, she never experienced labour pains. She is asked about her more recent experience of health; she mentions treatment for breast cancer. She rates the care she and her family have received in hospital highly. The secrets of a good old age are to be sociable. She talks about how her brother fell down 7 floors of stairs when he was 30, lost an arm and became registered disabled as a result. The community centre plays an important part of Georgina's life. Georgina exercises regularly. Her advice is to keep healthy and to take each day as it comes, eat healthily, go out and about and stay in touch with her family. Time start: 00:00:00:00 Time end: 01:08:00:00 Length: 01:08:00:00