Lost Roots

This chapter uses interview data to identify and develop a number of key themes that emerged from the study. It focuses, in particular, on the people, places and times that so often structure the nostalgic memories of the participants. Anne, who we discussed at length in the last chapter, was lucky enough to have retained what seemed to be a range of clear memories of her early life and the loved ones that made it such a happy time for her. She comments thus:

‘I have good memories of my Mam. I can still see her face, when I think back. She was dead nine years in August. She was a great mam. She was a lot of fun, especially before when we were younger. She was ill a long time and there's memories there too. I remember her singing. I think of that every now and then. I'm in my school uniform, just in from school I think, because she's in the kitchen cooking. She's singing. She liked all those old-time songs. She made a good life for us. It was a happy house’.