Marlene and I met on the floor of an international store in Cambridge where we both worked. We were running the provision and grocery counters. After a long courtship, we finally married in 1961 at the Catholic Church on Milton Road after Marlene turned 21, as her Mother had decreed. She was a very strict person and wouldn’t let her marry before that. She wouldn’t even let her daughter have the key to the house. When we were late returning from a date, she would throw it down from her upstairs window.
Marlene was born to Anna Kreft and Alfred Albert Victor Long and christened Marlene Teresa Christina Long. She was the youngest of six children, born when Anna was 48 years old. Her Dad left the family when Marlene was 2 or 3 years old. Her siblings were a lot older than her but she was the one who took care of her mother till the end.
Anna and Alfred met in Germany during the First World War. He was a 22 year old English soldier, she was a 25 year old laundress; they married on the 9th of March 1921 in Cologne. Anna had a son called Maximilian, from an earlier relationship that she seldom spoke about. After the war Anna and Alfred moved to a cottage in a village called Reach in Cambridgeshire and it was here that their children were born. Later they came to live in Lindon Close on Histon Road in Cambridge.
Their first son, Lawrence went to fight the Germans in the Second World War, their second son Edgar fought in Korea trying to capture the hills which the army did, and the youngest became the batman to a British Colonel in Japan. The eldest daughter, Lousie married the boss of a shoe company, the second married an American pilot and moved to the US. Maximilian came over to England to join his mother’s family when he was 17 but was wrongly convicted for spying and put into a concentration camp in England where he spent 2 years.
Marlene and I started our married life in Shelford Caravan Park. I owned a Royal Enfield motorcycle that we would ride to work. I was asked to stand in for the manager once when he went on a holiday and I was only 22 years old. I had to oversee several stores scattered all over the county.
Shortly after we were married, Anna fell ill and we had to leave Shelford and move into a council house so Marlene could take care of her. We lived there till she died. It was rented in both our names. Her brothers felt that they could come and stay for as long as they wanted because of the mother. But that was not possible and I had to drive them away. Then her sister came from the US and stayed for 6 months to have a baby here. She promised to pay Marlene but she didn’t. She had the baby in a private nursing home and returned to the US without meeting the bill. We refused to pay when they came from the nursing home to claim the money.
I left the store and joined my brother who was a plasterer. I learnt plastering and then had a business of my own. I finally packed up when I was 63 after major spine issues that needed operating twice.
Marlene, meanwhile, went to work in the King’s Arms pub on King’s street in Cambridge that she ran for 10 years. Then a position came up of the Chief Housekeeper of Emmanuel College, at the University of Cambridge and she applied. The person in charge who was to interview her was someone called Brigadier Elderkin. She walked into the interview and addressed him as Brigadier and cleared the interview and got the job. She worked as the Chief Housekeeper for 18 years till she retired. We were given accommodation in the ground floor of a large house on Newmarket road which was originally a nunnery but now belonged to the College.
She was responsible for 40 students some of who lived on the floors above us and in the adjoining houses. When we moved in, there was no emergency light in the house and there were asbestos sheets over the pipes in the cellar in the basement. Marlene insisted that these be changed and the light fitted. Students tried to get the better of her but she would have nothing of that. However, it was a job for all hours.
Marlene loved the Norfolk Broads. When the students went home three times a year, we would go on our holiday to the Broads, with Marlene reading her book and looking at wild life, and I fishing on a boat. We did that for 18 years.
I was in business then but I wasn’t allowed to bring in any equipment within the compound or eve park my big truck inside. I parked on the road opposite the house.
Due to complications during birth, our elder son Adrian was left paralysed on his left side. I taught him plastering. When he was 17, he wanted to drive. He figured out a way to listen to the engine and change the gear without using his left foot. He cleared his driving test in the second try and now he drives a 7 ton truck.
Our younger son Tony and his wife are in the business of refurbishing homes and are doing very well.
My Dad joined the Second World War. He was a baker and baked for soldiers and villagers. After the war, he used to sell his bread in a horse cart. One of his brothers owned a slaughter house and sometimes my Dad would sell the horse meat to some local Italian restaurant. The owners knew about it but no one got into trouble.
He worked for bakers Mathew on Cherry Hinton Road for many years and then for Tilers on Mill Road. I used to go on Sunday mornings and help him bake bread and rolls for all the Colleges of Cambridge University. A van driver came and picked up the breads and rolls for the Colleges before breakfast.
After retiring, my Dad became the lollipop man for St. Faith’s school on Trumpington. He would hold up the beacon and help children cross the road. In the first year of his being with the school, they raised a collection and presented him with £500-it brought tears to his eyes.
My Mom was a very strict and didn’t like anyone drinking. I would some time pick up my Dad and take him our for a drink in the pub. She didn’t approve of that at all. I had two younger sisters.
Marlene and I moved into our present home in Cambourne 25 years ago. She passed away five years ago. She wanted to be taken in a horse carriage to the cemetery. There were two black horses with read plume, making an impressive sight as Marlene made her last journey to her place of rest in Cambourne. A Catholic priest presided over the funerary rites.
I carry flowers for her every Sunday morning and tell her all that has happened over the week.
Keith Huckle is a retired plasterer. He lives in Cambourne.