Ugliness in any form was intolerable to her and under that category came disorder and dirt, in consequence when she died at 73 we found her little cottage utterly spotless and everything in "order" ... "Perhaps that's what those two had in common, SPIRIT, but their taste was certainly not in common, and there mother's antipathy to ugliness caused strife. Mother had it - taste - and Father hadn't, and Father liked to bring home objects d'art. I shall never forget those awful dining room chairs he "procured"...Mother was fairly successful in getting rid of his purchases, in time, ...

Though she didn't believe it [in] making it too evident to me, mother's regard for her youngest was always leaking out - to the delighted amusement of friends who shared her view that it was better not to encourage a natural conceit. To one friend who was sharing with her that we had more than enough rain. "Oh no," said mother, "our Edna wants it for the subsoil!"

She was always having to listen to ... praise [for] her elder daughter! for [her] looks: "such sparkling brown eyes! And that wonderful olive skin!" - that one always puzzled me. I thought olives were green and so on and so on, until one day she could stand it no longer. "Edna's quite good looking too" she piped up for her little ugly duckling. She seemed quite fearless regardless of any near shaves when I was at the wheel, though I had seen her pale when driving with other drivers.

To me her taste was irreproachable, and when I was building my home and in a bit of a fix how to cope with some problem, I would wait for her to come up for the weekend to put the problem before her. "Do you think that would look alright dear?" I would ask and she would say "Well you know best dear, I don't know anything about building". "Oh yes, it will string together but will it look allright?" then she would consider it, and visualizing the finished piece of work she might say "Well I think it might look a bit heavy or a little light" as the case might be and from then on a sort of model would be set up until we were both satisfied before I proceeded with the job.