William George "George" Rebbeck 1901 - 1994

Recollections of Bygone Days part 6

1986
I'm beginning to get in a muddle. With twenty 'incidentals' trying to justify calling this 'Incidentally' I can't recall each incident. Have I written about the Canadian lady? No - Right, here goes. I first met her at Cromer in the Physiotherapy Department. She had had a stroke I believe. I'm no expert at guessing a ladies age, but as I'm over 86 anybody less then that is 'young' but I think 40 wouldn't be far out either way. Like me she was trying to walk again when I was transferred to Kelling*. When I'd been brought back to Cromer and had had special treatment for several days because of the danger of thrombosis I was waiting out on the lawn where a dozen patients were enjoying the sunshine. Gradually all but the Canadian lady drifted away and as there was still plenty of strong sunshine I asked her if she was going in or not, she said she'd prefer to sit outside so I asked if I might sit with her and have what Norfolk natives call a 'mardle' (chat or gossip). She agreed and I moved a chair over and talked to her. Michael Parkinson was rubbish by comparison. I soon had her laughing and after half an hour we had to break it up, somebody had come to take me home.

The lady took both my hands and held them saying "Thank you for staying to talk to me. I haven't laughed so much for a very long time."

"Well, you haven't had much to laugh about, my dear, have you? But you've had good news today, I hear."

"Yes" she said "The Canadian government have agreed to settle my medical expenses".

In order to persuade the insurance company responsible for the damage inflicted upon me by their client that the damage was more than temporarily superficial I had to visit the consultant surgeon at his surgery In Norwich. It was after five o'clock on a Friday afternoon after an ordinary surgery. He had not had access to my "notes" and was using a tape recorder, all "on" "off" and "over". Half the time I didn't know if he was talking to me or his receptionist. Also he had not seen the x-ray photos. I didn't feel very impressed, especially as I'd had to pay in advance - £25. But the report when it came was very much in my favour, liberally sprinkled with professional jargon. It helped me persuade the Insurance Company to up their first offer of £500 to £1000. My solicitor asked me if I would like to discuss it with the chap in the Norwich office from his office in Holt after he'd got to £1500. 1 did - "will you repeat your offer?" He did - and I assured him that a joke didn't become any funnier when it was repeated. We then did a bit of "auctioning" and we finally got to £1800 plus expenses, including the consultant's £25 (for half an hours work)

There is a follow on to this story. I wasn't happy about something and one of our surgery group suggested that I might like to see the consultant again. I agreed but not "privately." I went to Cromer hospital and met Mr Phillips the hip "operator" who very much wanted to do my left hip. When he had looked at my creaking joints and I had once more obstinately refused to have the operation, we stood around waiting for something, Mr P, three white coated young 'learners", a nurse and a quite young and quite attractive secretary. I forget what the delay was but the "great man' was quite affable; he asked me what I'd been doing before I retired and I told him.

"Hmmm. quite a cushy job," he commented.

He was asking for it so here it came.

"Yes, a job I enjoyed - there was only one snag." (look out here it comes)

"What was that ?"

"It didn't pay £50 an hour."

He grinned and said "Point taken".

******

Who Wouldn't Enjoy Wood

A wooden train resided for many years in the garden at , High Kelling where George and his beloved Lena lived to the end of their days. Peter and his brothers played with that train and Peter's sons played with it. Other Rebbecks had fun playing with this train. George would have taken great delight in their pleasure.

Extract from an email from Grandson Peter Hancock

One thing I did pick up in England was a small manicure case, given by my Grandfather to my Grandmother during courtship. It is unfortunately rather tatty and incomplete, but it does contain two letters which reflect the correctness of society in Edwardian England

As promised here are the letters from the manicure box sent to his future wife Lena. I suspect that the "Xmas card" was hidden inside the box, and the "R and S" was more visible to nosy father/mother/brothers/sisters etc. Lena was born on Dec 26th, so this was a joint Christmas/birthday present. Lena did indeed "reverse the numbers of her present age", and proved to be the best producer of "R and S" I have ever met. George certainly did not think he would outlive her even in their twilight years, and to be honest, neither did we. She was an angel on earth, and I will never forget how fortunate I was to have such a couple as Grandparents.

Other Recollections of William George "George" Rebbeck

George's cousins, the Brenton daughters, have said that they can never remember a time when they saw George without his wife, Lena in his company. Long before they married they were already a "couple". The documents that Peter sent on speak for themselves.

2003
Peter and his mother, Marjorie, decided to give me the originals along with the manicure case in which they are kept. Thank you both - they will be treasured.