Alice Edith Lynde (later life)
Alice Edith Lynde (later life)
Alice Edith said later that, after Horace’s sudden death, she turned to ‘stone’. She was left with two small children, three month
old Bunty and myself, nearly three years old, on Vancouver Island far from her family. The staff at the bank were helpful but she
needed to return to England. It took almost a year to settle everything, cross Canada and sail for home in 1928. It was not until
she and her children were with her mother (Alice Rose) that she collapsed and was nursed slowly back to health. The baby, Bunty,
seemed to develop normally in spit of the major problems their had been at her birth but when she was 18 months old she started
having convulsions and all development stopped. She never walked or talked but responded to music when Alice played to her.
Alice cared for her lovingly until Bunty was 16 years old, refusing to be parted from her. But the heavy lifting took its tool and
Alice needed an internal operation in November 1943. So Bunty had to go into a nursing home where she fell out of bed one cold
night, caught pneumonia and died on 19th December 1943. Alice was heartbroken. Soon after it was discovered that she had a
tumour on the brain caused by a fall in the garden some years earlier. The operation to remove the tumour was a success but she
was too weak and died on 29th March 1944 without regaining conciousness. She was 56 years old. (there was probably an air raid
on as I left the London hospital after sitting by her bed as she died but all I remember now is the feeling of complete and utter
desolation and shattering loss, it was so final, my dear brave Mother)
1940 Alice with Bunty aged 13 in her special pram
August 1943 Alice, Noelle (18) and Andrej Fuscic
Alice Edith had been happy for me to become engaged to Andrej at Christmas 1943 although she was adamant that we wait until
after the war to marry. But she changed her mind and gave her blessing when she knew she had to have the operation to remove
the brain tumour. She wanted to know that her 19 year old daughter would marry someone she knew and liked. She arranged
where and who would marry us and asked her niece and god daughter, Doris, always to be my friend. Andrej was serving in the
Czechoslovak Brigade attached to the British Army and all leave had been cancelled in preparation for D-Day (the invasion of
Europe by Allied Forces) which took place on June 6th 1944. Fortunately Battalion was not among the first to go and he managed
to get 48 hours special compassionate leave to get married. So three months after Alice’s death our wedding took place in St
Peter’s Church, Vere St, London, on 2nd June 1944. Three people were present, Doris, Aunty Dolly Arnold and a friend of my
mother’s. It was the time of the ‘flying bombs’ and afterwards we had to dive under the table in a nearby restaurant when a bomb
came close. I remember we had tea and strawberries (a luxury in wartime). Sadly Alice Edith never saw her three grandchildren.
Noelle 1944
Andrej 1944
Peter Anthony
born 1954
Michael Jan born
1950
Helen Margaret
born 1948
Alice Edith’s grandchildren in 1962
David Mager
Bluetooth’s Apprentice
