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Hey Reader,

My Grandma, Muriel Edwardson, was born in 1927 in Keighley, West Yorkshire. She died on Monday night, aged 99.

Can you imagine the changes she’s seen in her long life?

Automatic washing machines. Indoor toilets. Hot running water. Space travel! Vaccines and people not dying of preventable diseases. Central heating. Television sets, then colour TV. Microwave ovens. Custom kitchen deliveries. (Sorry) The INTERNET! She had an iPad and enjoyed doing Wordles and jigsaws on it. On a handbag-sized computer that must have seemed like magic.

When she was a girl, there were more horses on the roads than cars. The milk was still delivered by horse and cart, and when her mother ran out of vinegar, she’d send my Grandma down t’road t’corner shop with a big jug to get a refill. Grandma would always have a swig on the way home.

She was a weird kid, like me.

When she was a teenager, she’d go to church, then to Sunday school, where they’d warn the young people about the Terrible Dangers of the Cinema and Dancing. My Grandma would nod and make all the right noises, then she’d go and hand out flyers for the latest movie at her local cinema, and after that she’d go to the local dance hall and dance her socks off.

She met my Grandad as a pen pal during the War. He was posted with Grandma’s uncle, and her uncle showed my Grandad a photograph of her, and my Grandad asked if he could write to her. They wrote for months before they met, in a blizzard at a train station between Yorkshire and Lancashire, where my Grandad was from.

My Grandad died in 1993 and she’d been alone ever since. He was the love of her life.

Grandma wasn’t much for displays of affection. But she was always there when someone needed her. When my first marriage disintegrated, and I had nowhere to go, Grandma gave me a place to live until I got back on my feet. I went on lots of terrible dates during that time, and she once told me that if she could go back and have her time again, she’d have gone on lots more dates too and had the kind of fun young women weren’t supposed to have back then.

She was as sharp as ever right up to the past few months, when she started to fade.

I know she was ready to go. She was tired, worn thin. She said she was ready to go, several times over the past few weeks. And isn’t that something to hold onto? A long life, well lived, right to the end. She wasn’t afraid, she wasn’t fighting it, she was ready. And that’s kind of comforting.

I hope she did all that she wanted to do. I hope she had few regrets.

I hope that when it’s my turn, I’ve lived my one wild and glorious life to the full, and filled it with love and joy.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

And so here’s this week’s Goodie Bag, a collection of small things that made me smile, which felt delightful after a week of Big Things.

Leeds Library’s Zine-making area!

You may or may not know, but I LOVE a handmade zine. I make one every few months and send it in the post to people I think might enjoy it. I love seeing ones other people make. So when my friend Jenn sent me this pic from Leeds Library, I nearly exploded with delight.

This Onion headline

I don’t know why this photo and caption made me laugh so much but it did and I nearly ruptured something. Every time I see it, I get the giggles. It’s so stupid. And it’s such a neat lesson in how simplicity is often the best way. Take something utterly normal, and make it absurd.

This drawing toy I’m going to make and put in my new kitchen

Austin Kleon is one of my favourite writers and makers. He’s the reason I make zines. He made a doomscroller for his kids — and, let’s be honest, for himself — and now I want one too. Because it’s not just a fun way to be creative whenever you walk past, it’s also a really cool way to make content.

These phrases you might use in the kitchen or the bedroom

I love improv comedy because it forces you to be silly and creative and put your ego away because there’s no time for that nonsense. I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue is one of my fave radio programmes and this segment is funny AND a lesson in how to BE funny.

These two lunch ladies and whatever it is they’re doing

I don’t know why they do this. But I am glad. It is what the internet was made for.

What I’m reading

We’re watching The Peripheral on telly at the moment, and I’ve never read any William Gibson. He wrote Neuromancer in 1984 apparently and coined the term “cyberspace” and kind of predicted the internet and stuff. Anyway, I’m reading Agency which is the sequel to The Peripheral but it stands alone. It’s really interesting — a look at time travel, kind of, and AI, and branching timelines. Recommended.

What I’m writing

This week: very little. But I did manage to get a few more paragraphs of my cosy fantasy novel down. It’s happening very, very slowly and may never see the light of day. But that’s okay.

Word of the week

Magnanimous.

It means having a kind or generous nature. I try to be magnanimous. But sometimes my inner bitch just claws its way out.

Quote of the week

Have a beautiful weekend.

TTFN,

Vicky 🫡

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