Rachel Spence was born in Drumatee Armagh in December 1899. She was the first daughter of Elizabeth Spence and was brought up, as far as we know, with her grandparents, Isaiah and Susan Jane Spence.Her early life was spent in Markethill, before she moved to Scotland and went into service.

She married my grandfather, Thomas Aitken in 1927, after a long courtship.She and Thomas had three children, Jean, Ray and Tom. Ray was my mother.

 My memories of my grannie are few. I was only seven when she died. But each memory is of warmth and love, treasured by me to this day.

She and my grandpa lived in 18 Drive Road, Linthouse. I remember the house and the park that was straight across from it. It was fun to watch from the front room, all the passing cars, the coal cart pulled by a horse, and the leery coming along as it got dark to  light the gas mantles in the close below. When we stayed at gran’s we used to play in the front room and hide inside the huge sideboard that was polished to a shine. I can remember seeing and probably playing a few notes on the organ that was inside the big cupboard in that room. My mum remembers my uncle sleeping in that very cupboard when he was a boy.

The other room was where we stayed most of the time. There was only one chair, my grandpa’s, the others being dining chairs which sat beside the open table. She taught us to play penny toss at that gate-leg table in her back kitchen. It was also where we tried to make a house of cards, sometimes succeeding, until a draught came from nowhere to flatten our efforts. Sometimes we’d get to play with grannie’s button box. I can remember hours of poring through its contents admiring all the different shapes and colours.
It wasn’t a big room, but it served as the main room of the flat, since the front room was really only used when there were visitors. If we stayed, we slept with my grandparents in the big hole in the wall bed, or sometimes in the tiny box room at the side where a stone piggy was filled with hot water to keep the chill off when it was cold.

Grannie always had a bag. I remember a string one that she used to go the messages with. Sometimes, when she forgot something, she’d send me down to get it for her and reward me with as threepenny bit or a sixpence on my return. Immediately, I’d run off to the sweetie shop and buy two ounces of white drops and two ounces of chocolate drops, or maybe two halfpenny caramels coated in chocolate, or maybe a penny caramel or perhaps a sherbert dip.