The vase in yesterday’s post was bought in West Berlin in 1966.

 Has a history behind it.In 1966 my brother had married Ute ,aGerman girl he had met on holiday on the Isle of Man. She was working there for the summer.They settled in our home town of Bolton.In the summer of 1966 my brother suggested we drove to West Berlin to see Ute’s mother.He didn’t have a car and we only had an A35 van with seats in the back but no windows! We had to drive through East Germany to get to West Berlin as the Berlin Wall was still up.It was quite scary.We spent two weeks there in the middle of the World Cup.Peter and Charles were in their element as West German tv were showing the West’s footie matches and East Germany the Eastern bloc matches.It was interesting visiting West Berlin and seeing the Berlin Wall,Checkpoint Charlie etc.We drove back home watching the first semi final in a bar in Belgium and then racing home for the second semi final.

To get round to the point I bought the vase on Kurfürstendamm back then.It survived the journey back and various house moves and it is still treasured today.Unfortunately my sister in law did not survive .She died in 1976 from malignant melanoma aged 32.She left behind three children aged 4,6 and nine.She was a lovely lady and a wonderful mother.So sad.Peter went on to remarry and his second wife took on the children as if they were her own.Bitter sweet memories.