{"id":18873,"date":"2012-10-19T14:18:45","date_gmt":"2012-10-19T13:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/?p=18873"},"modified":"2012-10-19T14:18:45","modified_gmt":"2012-10-19T13:18:45","slug":"jane-downes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/?p=18873","title":{"rendered":"Jane Downes"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘That’s Lovely, That Is’\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The television’s blaring in the residents\u2019 lounge as she lugs her bag of books down the stairs and avoids the waiting wheelchairs.
\nShe swiftly snaps off the TV and, \u201cGood afternoon ladies and gentlemen!\u201d she cries, spreading her arms wide, in a sort of embrace. Eyes open, bandaged legs and stiff arthritic necks are eased \u2013 ah, it’s Pam! Everyone perks up, well, each in their own way. She’s definitely entertainment, with her songs and poems.
\nDaisy, a hundred-and-two, loves Waltzing Matilda<\/em>, sings the last line with real gusto, so Pam always repeats it, Jim’s hand softly beating time in the air.
\n\u201cAh, that’s lovely!\u201d Frank, rough-voiced, shouts it, but they ignore him.
\nHelena loves another Matilda<\/em>. ‘Matilda told such dreadful lies, it made one gasp and stretch one’s eyes’. It’s Hilaire Belloc’s wonderful poem of just desserts!
\nFrank shouts, \u201cLittle liar!\u201d
\nAnd when Pam sings, well . . . she knows all the verses to My Old Man Said Follow the Van<\/em>, that Music Hall number, nearly everyone tries out the chorus. Frank yells at the top of his voice. Louisa finally cracks.
\n\u201cSsshhh!\u201d she hisses at him.
\n\u201cThat’s lovely,\u201d Jim’s musing, but Louisa, slim and agile despite her eighty-nine years, gets up. Standing in front of Frank, she wags her finger at him.
\n\u201cLess of your old row,\u201d she says in a good firm voice as if he’s nine, not ninety. He laughs in her face \u2013 he’s been heard again, that’s good enough.
\nSo, this week it’s \u2018The Sea’. Cargoes by John Masefield, and The Owl and the Pussycat<\/em>. Pam pitches her voice artfully for each poem, she doesn’t gabble, everyone finds something they half remember.
\nShe reads The Sussex Sailor<\/em> by Alfred Noyes and a sweet, yearning feeling hangs in the room. She sings Fiddlers Green<\/em> and Louisa says \u201cI’ve never heard that one before, that’s lovely, that is\u201d. Pam knows she has, here in this room, but no matter. It’s all about where old salts go when they die. \u2018And I’ll see you someday in Fiddler’s Green . . .\u2019
\nThat last chorus brings Frank strongly to life. Pushing himself to his feet using the arms of his chair, tottering across the room he allows himself to fall backwards with some force into the empty armchair beside little, silent Dolly.
\nFrank plonks his hand heavily onto her thigh and squeezes firmly as she wakes up, croaking out an alarmed, dry squeak.
\nPam’s busy giving them Drake’s Drum<\/em>, one eye on this interesting development.
\nLousia calls down from her chair, \u201cFrank, get back, get back on your own side, leave her alone you bully, get on with it, get back in your own chair\u201d. Dolly’s eyes and her little puckered mouth are round and scared as she stares and stares, soundlessly.
\nFrank glares at Louisa and hoists himself back to his feet. Pam launches into He Played his Ukulele as the Ship Went Down<\/em>. Frank, suddenly hearing, starts to sing. Finding his seat again he continues strongly, overtaking Pam, who quietens her voice, giving him room. Three verses he sings, loudly, clearly, with them all listening so intently:
\nNow this is the tale of the Nancy Lee<\/em>
\nThe ship that got shipwrecked at sea,<\/em>
\nAnd Captain Brown, who was in command<\/em>
\nWho played his ukulele as the ship went down.<\/em>
\n‘Yeah, that’s lovely, that is’.
\nA fortnight later they told Pam that Frank had moved on, \u201cHe’s gone to a carehome down the Old Town, he’ll like it there!\u201d murmurs Louisa.
\nPam mourned the loss, wondering what else was in Frank’s repertoire. Not growing old quietly. Good for him, she thinks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘That’s Lovely, That Is’\u00a0 The television’s blaring in the residents\u2019 lounge as she lugs her bag of books down the stairs and avoids the waiting wheelchairs. She swiftly snaps off the TV and, \u201cGood afternoon ladies and gentlemen!\u201d she… Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18873"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18881,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18873\/revisions\/18881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}