My maternal grandparents

These are my grandparents, Nanny’s parents. They are standing in front of their house on Somerset Street East. The little one in front of my grandmother is Mary, the youngest of the Gricken children. Next to her is Roberta, the fifth born into the family.

It was a very hard life in those days, but as you can see my grandmother was wearing a dress, my grandfather a shirt and tie and the girls were dressed in their best. That means it was Sunday, and they were either on their way to or from Mass. I don’t know who took this photo, but I love the happy smiles on their faces.

My parents, brother and I lived in three rooms in the unit to the left of my grandparents’ unit.

Below is a photo of Nanny with her grown-up sisters, Roberta on her right and Mary on her left, and that’s me on the far right.