Cissie at Number 8

Aidan Lunn

‘I still recall the first conversation with our next door neighbour Cissie, at No 8. As she was stone deaf the dialogue was pretty one way, but when you reach the age of 95 some decline in faculties is inevitable. She told us that she had moved into the house on her marriage, sometime before the last war, and that she and her husband had run a tailor’s shop on Western Road.

'Although now widowed, we were pleased to see that she was still able to get out, courtesy of the car that picked her up early
most evenings. Sadly, a year or so later she did have to move on to the local Jewish old people’s home, but we were somehow pleased when a couple of days after her departure the driver knocked on our door to check that the old lady next door no longer required her lift to the Casino in Preston Street. We had clearly come to a street with both history and character . . .'

Aiden Lunn, Number 7
Thanks to CMPCA