Jane Caldow – Dynamic Granny Guy

Simon: What was she [Mrs Guy senior] like as a person to be that bold and ambitious?

Jane: Well, the little recording I played you. My granny, she was yes, she was a dynamic person, very family orientated. She was very determined. They lived in Wootton, she would get the bus into Ryde even into her 80s and stuff and go into the business. She’d gone through quite a lot, yeah but she was …

Simon: When you say gone through a lot, what …?

Jane: Well, she came back to the Island with children, lived through the war and ran a business so she had a lot to do.

Simon: I see, yeah. And I mean you saw the family side of her.

Jane: Yes of course, yes.

Simon: Did you notice a contrast in that between that and her work?

Jane: I didn’t really see her in business as such because I was at school and everything, we’d only see her … but we used to go over to her for the day at weekends and stuff and school holiday time we’d spend a lot of time together. She’d been a fantastic pianist, she was creative, a very good Artist and she was LRAM so she had … and I played the piano and she always used to coach me before the Musical Festival and you know to do that and bought me a piano, a very nice piano.

She was a very endearing sweet person, a very doting grandmother. I’ve lots of books written with inscriptions inside from her, so she was very, very fond of the family.