He was so angry he could pick up red-hot coals with his bare hands. And all because of my Auntie Marj
Two things happened that Christmas in the late 70s; my Auntie Marj was involved in both. Marj was one of my nan’s sisters. She lived with a lot of cats on the Coventry Road in Birmingham. She had a big personality and a frame to match – there was a lot of her to love. Her catchphrases were: “You’ve got to laugh,” and “I’ve never seen the like in all my nudge.” Nudge? She had a ferocious, wheezy laugh, which would often give her cause to fish in her bag for a large, primitive black inhaler device for her asthma. She’d pump away at this to settle things down before resuming frivolities.
I was sitting on the floor playing a game with my brother when she arrived that Christmas morning. I must have been about 11. “Stand up, Ade,” she said. “Let’s have a look at you. I heard you’re getting fat.”