My Mum![]() My Friend![]() Germaine My mother, Germaine Lebel, was born in Pantin, a suburb of Paris, on 25th November 1897. She was an only child and had a very happy childhood. Although my grandparents,
Jules and Delphine Lebel, (see picture) were not very well off, nothing was too good for their daughter and Germaine had the very best of everything.
![]() The Church at Pantin, c. 1902 After my father, Marcel Leyder, married my mother in Pantin in 1920, she came over to England with him to start her married life in Hornsey, North London. In those days, my parents thought that one day they would go back to live in France and so my mother returned to her parents' home in Pantin for the birth of my eldest sister in 1921. My father was a Luxembourger and, under French law, it was necessary for the baby to be born in France to ensure that he or she would be able to claim full French nationality. A difficult time for an enforced separation. Then, three days after the birth, my grandmother, Delphine, writes to Marcel, who was due to arrive at the weekend, to tell him that Germaine had developed a very high fever during the night and was not at all well. This illness was indeed a terrible disaster for my mother and for the family as the local midwife had passed on Puerperal Fever, a Streptococcal infection once prevalent in women after childbirth (before the use of strict asepsis and cleanliness in delivery procedures). This was before the discovery of penicillin and modern antibiotics and, of the fourteen women the midwife had infected in Pantin, twelve died, one was paralysed and the fourteenth, my mother, after coming near death and receiving the last rites, eventually recovered after a terrible year of suffering. At first, seven doctors attended her. They had more or less given up all hope: "Give her all the morphine she asks for". My father dismissed them and found two others, one a surgeon. As a last resort to try and save her life, he agreed to an amputation of her left leg. It worked... but not before she had around 32 operations needing chloroform. (This last bit of information was given to us by my mother's cousine, Odette. My mother never spoke of it.) During all this time, Marcel visited every weekend from England and wrote about seventy letters to Germaine. He also rigged up pulleys so that
Marie-Claire's Second Birthday
I think I was three and a half years old in this picture
![]() Maud, Me on my Father's lap, Janine, Marie-Claire, my Mother and Pauline In her last few years, my mother suffered a great deal from arthritis and spondylitis. However, she never dwelt on her misfortunes and I never heard her complain or grumble. She made every effort to keep cheerful and she always had a smile and a kind word for everyone. Eventually, she became bedridden and completely dependent on my late sister, Pauline, (sitting next to Mum in the photo below), who looked after her with compassion and love. Pauline also did not complain about her deteriorating health and the worst thing I ever had to do was to tell my mother that Pauline was never coming back home after she was rushed to hospital following a stroke. She was 57 years old when she died on the evening of 3rd February 1989. ![]() Mum with Pauline My mother got progressively weaker but never lost her spirit nor her concern for others. We all took turns to look after her although the biggest share of the responsibility fell to my sister, Janine. My sister, Maud, was with her when she died peacefully in her sleep on 17th July 1990 aged 92. I know many people will think me stupid but, at her funeral, I had an extremely vivid sense of Mum's presence with my sister, Pauline. They were laughing and she was happy and I felt a very strong sense of her love as she came to bless each of her surviving children in turn. She is greatly missed.
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