Chapter 40
Andrea: H is for Hamming it Up
Hello my loves,
I’m writing this to you on a beautiful June evening.
It’s been one of those glorious days where you feel the long-forgotten sun on your skin, and everything in nature seems to be so glad to be alive.
Do remember to top up the birdbath and the feeder while you’re here, won’t you?
I wouldn’t want my lovely little blue-tit family to think I’d abandoned them.
I’ve been to the hospital today, and it wasn’t pleasant. They’ve been giving me some treatment that has made me feel absolutely ghastly, so I think that’s the last time I’ll be bothering.
It’s only going to prolong the inevitable, and I’ve decided I’d rather spend my last weeks feeling at least human.
There’s a lot left for me to do, and I won’t manage it with my head stuck in a toilet bowl, will I?
And don’t fret – Lewis was with me every step of the way.
I practically had to kick him out so I could get some work done.
Anyway, on to business. I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to keep going today, and I apologise now for the state of my handwriting. I’ve been spending so much time around doctors I seem to have started writing like one!
I am going to tuck this note inside one of my old programmes, and the subject of conversation tonight is unashamedly all about Me. Me, me, me, me, me. So there.
I’m taking a break from my emotional prodding, girls, to indulge in a good old-fashioned nostalgic wallow.
I’ve so enjoyed getting all of this together, chatting to Lewis about it, and reliving a few glory moments.
Old luvvies never die, darlings – they live on in celluloid heaven!
I mean, Sir Alec Guinness might be long gone, but we still know these are not the ’droids you’re looking for, don’t we?
The programme I’ve chosen – from the many – is for Grease, and that run I had over the school holidays, playing Frenchie.
I was exceptionally old to be playing a high-school student, but such is theatre, and it was great fun.
You used to come along and sit in the box every night, and saw it so many times you knew all the words to that shama-lama-ding-dong song near the end.
Plus you did the cutest ever little duet of ‘Summer Nights’ – you always insisted on being Danny, didn’t you, Poppy?
That was a good time – but it wasn’t always easy to combine my work with being a single mum.
Rose, I’m sure you’ll appreciate exactly how tough it was, now, after doing it yourself.
I was trying to make life as stable as possible for you two, and that involved making a lot of compromises with my acting.
I tried to work during the holidays when you could come with me – all those days sitting on set with colouring books and dot-to-dots; what I’d have given for one of those Nintendo devices like Joe has!
I had to turn jobs down, and of course I wasn’t based in London, which is the centre of the known acting universe, so it wasn’t always easy.
I had to balance the need to disrupt your lives with the need to earn money, and keep you two in Clark’s shoes and fig rolls, as well as all those boring old things like paying the mortgage and the gas bill.
It was always a challenge, and I’m very thankful that Penny Peabody came along in my twilight years and rescued me from a life of cutting out food coupons and rationing my bubble baths. Still, no matter how challenging it was, it was a fabulous career.
I had so much fun, met so many interesting people; I travelled, and saw the world, and enjoyed pretty much every moment of it.
I mean, it’s not like a proper job, is it?
I may not have hit the heights of some of my contemporaries, but I loved it – and somehow, with a nod and a wink from the big man upstairs, seem to have managed to combine it with raising two little girls on my own.
I’ve put together a little show reel for you, girls – it’s on the video sharing thing that Lewis has set up, but it’s also on a DVD too. I wanted you to have it like that as well so that you can pass it on to Joe without him having to see all the other, perhaps less fun, videos.
It’s a collection of some of my favourite film and TV clips – and you’ll get to see your dear old mama transformed before your very eyes into a collection of tarts with a heart, barmaids, sassy secretaries, yummy mummies, stern head teachers and, perhaps my most favourite of all, the nubile young victim of a dashingly handsome Count Dracula – that was before I had you two, and – if I say so myself – my bosoms in that peasant wench outfit are absolutely magnificent; they could have had a film of their own!
There are a few clips of some of my stage shows, and to prove I’m not a complete egotist, I found space on there for some footage of you two as well. Although you may not thank me for it – it’s of you doing your ‘Summer Nights’ routine, and giving it loads of wella-wella-wella-uh!
In the package there will also be some more theatre programmes, a few old movie posters that have somehow survived the decades, and even some of my reviews.
Only the kind ones, of course – the rest were ceremonially roasted over a fiery pit.
I hope it’s fun for you, and also helps you see me as someone other than your mother – because while that was obviously my most important role in life, it was far from the only one.
Now, while I’m at it, let’s discuss the letter I.
I’m going to ask Lewis to simply put it next to H and leave it blank, because to be honest, girls, I can’t think of anything remotely interesting to go with it.
So, I’m choosing I is for Inebriation – please tuck into that nice bottle of Amaretto I’ve left in the booze cupboard while you watch.
Happy viewing, and enjoy!
Mum xxx