A Gory Stoke Childhood

I can still recall what she looked like after a gap of over 50 years. She was about 60 but looked older. I supposed she was to use an old fashioned word a crone. She always wore a red mac, given as a gift by my Mother, and bootees with a zip down the middle of them. Leastways that is my memory of her. It was a very lined face with slate grey drab looking hair and a long nose. It was an intense face of constant toil and hardship. I don’t think that she was a frequent dealer in merriment or smiles. I think that I remembered a wart at the corner of the mouth but I may be wrong. It was a face and a personality that most children would have run away from screaming "witch" but I did not see it like that. I guess that she had stories and memories to pass on and I was a willing recipient. I was, as a child , very respectful to older people