My Granny Geake - photos, cine and video footage
Category: Cine Films and Videos
Posting photographs, cine and video footage of my Granny Geake (born Phyllis Grace Weaver: 1916-2005) on what would have been her 105th birthday. Known as Phyl, she was born in Tavistock in Devon ten days after her father was killed in WWI. Orphaned before the age of five, she went to live with her maternal grandparents where she later said she was somewhat spoilt by her uncles. After her grandmother died in 1925, Phyllis lived with her aunt, Edith Ellen Martin, and uncle, John Luxton Martin. The environment was stricter but Phyllis later said it did her good. She was intelligent but was denied a place at the grammar school because she had no father.
She married my Grandpa in 1938 and they lived in Tavistock all their married lives. However, the Second World War meant they didn't see each other for four years between 1941 and 1945. During this time Phyllis developed an overactive thyroid and became gravely ill before having an operation to remove the gland.
Phyllis worked in Leonard's Shoe Shop and also in a newsagent's shop as well as helping my Grandpa with his fruit and vegetable round. She took great pleasure in her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and was well known for her broad Devonshire accent and raucous laugh. She was plucky, generous and hospitable, always wanting to feed you up whenever you visited. She laid on many family Christmases and when I stayed with her as a child, we always stopped for elevenses which was a special one-to-one time.
Phyllis finally left Tavistock in 2004 to go to live in a retirement flat in Plymouth but not before organising the sale of nearly all of her furniture (and not through the internet either). She died the following year, leaving a big hole in the family where a kind and bright personality once was.
This video can also be viewed on my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSyLHS1HD2M and in my website video gallery.
Music: The Entertainer (1902, piano roll) by Scott Joplin
[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]
She married my Grandpa in 1938 and they lived in Tavistock all their married lives. However, the Second World War meant they didn't see each other for four years between 1941 and 1945. During this time Phyllis developed an overactive thyroid and became gravely ill before having an operation to remove the gland.
Phyllis worked in Leonard's Shoe Shop and also in a newsagent's shop as well as helping my Grandpa with his fruit and vegetable round. She took great pleasure in her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and was well known for her broad Devonshire accent and raucous laugh. She was plucky, generous and hospitable, always wanting to feed you up whenever you visited. She laid on many family Christmases and when I stayed with her as a child, we always stopped for elevenses which was a special one-to-one time.
Phyllis finally left Tavistock in 2004 to go to live in a retirement flat in Plymouth but not before organising the sale of nearly all of her furniture (and not through the internet either). She died the following year, leaving a big hole in the family where a kind and bright personality once was.
This video can also be viewed on my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSyLHS1HD2M and in my website video gallery.
Music: The Entertainer (1902, piano roll) by Scott Joplin
[Note: All content on the Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]