July, 1953

It was July and Simeon was three weeks old. Mary felt a bit embarrassed, to do it, but she asked Martin, “Could we take the children and go up to the churchyard this afternoon? I really want to look at the gravestones.”

“I can see no reason why not. It is a lovely day and will be fun for the children to run around amongst the graves. But somehow, I think there is a reason behind all this. What is it, love?

“I want to find Rebecca’s grave. I want to show her my new baby,” said Mary, almost crying from the emotion of it all. “She made me promise I would show him to her, although she was hoping it would be a girl and I would name her Rebecca, after my rescuer.”

“Let’s take a picnic lunch and we can spend the afternoon. I will look after the children and play games with them and you can look around the stones and see if you can see any that you can identify.”

So just after twelve, they took the pram, the picnic basket, and holding Alice and John firmly by their hands, they started on their adventure of discovery. They went up the loke outside Whalebone House, up past Gainsborough Cottage on the right and Hollyhock cottage on the left. At the top was Lane House on one side, and Holly Cottage on the other. They turned to the right and walked down Fairstead – looking at the gardens as they walked by. As they approached the turning down to the main road, they went by Fairstead Cottage and then Church Lane Cottage. The allottments were on the left and a very large house called Long Acre on the right. After a bit they took the path down past Knoll House and Church Knoll, and other cottages at the back of the church and came upon the graveyard.

There were benches alongside the edge of the graveyard, and they settled down for their picnic lunch – spreading a blanket on the ground for the children. Simeon was very good, but when he stirred, Mary took him from the pram and fed him, and he went quickly back to sleep again.

Martin kept the children happy and engaged in games which dealt with looking for certain letters and numbers on the tombstones and Mary took out her notebook and started her search.

She really was only interested in names that had been mentioned to her in her other life – so she skipped by many which were either too old or too new. Many she could not read at all, so she very much hoped she would not miss the one she so much wanted to see.

When she went around towards the front of the church she suddenly got rather excited. She had found a clutch of stones all relating to the Starling family. She hadn’t met them, but references had been made to them both by Rebecca and by Freda Starr. Elizabeth Starling died on August 28, 1879. She was only 44. Her tomb read, “Being in the sight of the Lord is the wish of his saints.” Mary wondered if she had kept the shop which Freda now ran, or whether she had been some other part of the family. Then she found one for Alice Ann Starling, who died on November 22, 1894, aged 33. “It’s hard to part from one we love, But Jesus knows what is best” her tomb said.

Martin shouted from the back, “Mary, I have found a bunch of Bastards here for you.”

Giggling to herself, Mary went to the far side of the church yard again. She found William Bastard – born February 29th 1852 – so he would only have been a baby when she was there, and he didn’t die until 1911. His wife was buried with him. Then she found Mary Ann Bastard who died on May 29th, 1889, 60 years old. But Mary was sure the woman she was looking for had been called Biddy. Then she came to Samuel Bastard’s grave which also contained his wife who died in 1864. The saying on the tomb was, “Her children shall call her blessed.”

“I found Biddy,” chirped Alice.

“Yes, you have, you clever girl,” said Mary. “She died in 1887, but William died in 1864. Oh, and look, here are their two sons – John died in 1864 too – I wonder if they died together in an accident of some sort. And Jabez died in 1874 – only 30. Poor Biddy. She lost her whole family. There is no mention of her daughter Dorcas, but she most likely will have married and we wouldn’t know what name to look under.”

While going through those at the very back of the church Mary found a huge vault. It was for John Lee, who died on November 24th, 1848 aged 60. And his wife Hannah died 16th October 1864. “We sorrow not as we have hope.” Mary thought this might be the Hannah that had been playing whist – as she had been a widow at the time and much younger than Rebecca from the sound of it. The vault also contained Mary Smith, sister of John, from Surrey, who died in 1854. Mary wondered if Hannah’s sister-in-law had come to live with her – and then had died not long after.

After over an hour of searching Mary finally found what she was looking for. It was such a lovely tombstone, with a carved rose at the top and the inscription, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Mary went and got the pram and pushed it up to the very edge. She knelt down by the tomb and whispered softly, “Here he is, Rebecca. He is ever such a good baby, my Sam. You would enjoy holding him and playing with him. I’m pleased to see that you had a good many years after my visit with you – it says you didn’t die until 1871 – that was another 18 years you had. I hope you had grandchildren of your own by then. But I suppose there is no way we can find that out. I don’t see Rachel’s tomb near you, so perhaps she married and moved away. Thank you again for rescuing me, and I will come and visit you often and bring the children.”