Recording three- interviews:

I have interviewed both my mother and grandmother in order to fully understand my grandfather’s life and the memories they have of him. I wanted to learn how my grandmother and grandfather met, the struggles of their divorce and how they managed to remain close friends years after. I also wanted to know what it was like to raise eight children and the type of life style they had. The more I find out about my grandfather the better I can produce images which truly symbolise him. Furthermore, when interviewing my mother I wanted to find out about the type of father daughter relationship they had. 

Interview one- Mary Robins

What reminds you of Richard Le Claire?

M- What reminds me of Richard Le Claire? My children, yes my children, er one in particular my second son looks a lot like him. Whenever I see him I remember, I remember when we were very young, we met when we’d play together, when I was about five and he was about twelve. That’s when I first met him, I didn’t see him for a few years and then I met him again and we use to all go out together, his sister Anne and Reg, they are both gone now. And we use to go sit on Howard Davis Park and have tea together, that reminds me of him.  He was a very very shy man, we use to go to the Dinner dances for the post office, it was my once a yearly outing. I use to dance but he didn’t dance. Sometimes after we had our meal and the dancing started he would disappear and go home. He didn’t like dancing but he didn’t mind me staying.

What sort of jobs did he have?

Well he worked for Horn Brothers for many many years but it wasn’t a very good paying job, and he was a carpenter and plasterer and it was hard work. Sometimes he would have to lose days because there wasn’t enough work for him to do, but then somebody offered him a job at the brewery. He loved the work at the brewery because it was inside and he made a lot of friends, and he worked there until he was retired.

Could you tell me a little bit about your wedding and your children?

My wedding, well we go married in the town church, I wore blue with a little hat. We lived together with the children, we were there until Robert, Richard and Jenny were born. It was quite an old house, the yard was pretty grim but we were very happy. But then we moved to Grassett Park when, I think I was pregnant with Michael, I had Andrew, Joy and Christine at Grassett Park.

Do you still have the wedding ring?

No, when we quarrelled he threw it away, which I was quite upset about really but we became very good friends after that we were only bad friends for a little while.

Do you miss him?  

Yeah I miss him, I was very upset when he died we had some good years together, we didn’t have a lot of money but we had fun. We made the best of what we had and we loved eacherother for a long time. I still think of him a lot and still love him.

Do you cherish the memories you had with him?

Yeah, I do, I do cherish the memories. I was very sorry he died when he did it was very sad.

Interview two- Christine Benning 

What reminds you of Richard Le Claire? For example, smells, colours, holidays etc. 

Do you miss him?

How did you deal with the grieving of your father?

Do you find comfort and happiness when looking at archive images of him?