Palm Sunday

It was a very important role to play and my mother was to wear her very best dress when in the presence of this actress.

 

Reference:  Matthew 21: 1-11 ; Mark 11:1-11 ; Luke 19:28-44 ; John 12:12-19

 

Explore:  When my mother was a young girl she was chosen to be the bearer of flowers to a famous actress who was coming in to town. The actress was from America and was arriving in Manchester to perform at the Theatre there.  My grandfather was the doctor of the Manchester theatre at the time and whenever someone prestigious came to England they would be presented with a posy of flowers.  And so my mother, who was 5 at the time, was chosen as the special girl to address the actress.

It was a very important role to play and my mother was to wear her very best dress when in the presence of this famous actress.  At the age of 5 she did not know who the actress was and therefore can’t remember her name, however even at a young age she knew this was a big deal.

As part of her duty she had to say something to the actress when presenting her with the posy of flowers.  And so she was instructed as to exactly what she was to say.  My mother would often go along her street and talk to the older ladies who lived nearby and she was so excited about her special occasion that she went across the road to one of her elderly friends to tell her of her task.  She recalls talking to her neighbour about what she was going to do but in a lapse of memory could not recall what the exact sentence she was supposed say was.  Luckily enough she remembered it later on that day and felt it was so important that she should go and interrupt her neighbour a second time to tell the elderly lady exactly what her statement was to be.  Unfortunately her neighbour did not feel that the one sentence statement warranted her having to come all the way down from the third storey of her house just to hear my mother recite her sentence, but this was my mother’s crucial statement to someone of great importance.

The day came for the actress to arrive and my mother was dressed in her best clothes, she had the sentence firmly lodged in her memory and she had the posy of flowers firmly in her grasp.  Many people had flocked down to the train station to greet the actress as she walked off the train. There was a huge welcome party, dignitaries, journalists and even Charles Boyer – a famous actor at the time.  And there was my mother amongst it all and without a hitch she presented the flowers to this actress, curtsied beautifully, recited her rehearsed sentence and had her photo taken.  For a famous actress it was important that everything was done just right.  Although Mum cannot remember who the actress was at the time, she still – 60 years later – has the official photograph that was taken of her on the day.

 

 

John, Luke, Mark, Matthew