Last year I wrote about returning to Inst for a school reunion, fifty years on. John Faris, who was a couple of years ahead of me at Inst, and who reads this blog, contacted the editor of the Instonians Old Boys magazine, Seahorse, to propose that the piece be included in their Winter 2023 edition.
A fellow called Stephen read the article and noticed the reference to my brother John, who died in 2017. Stephen had been in charge of the sheltered accommodation on the Lisburn Road where John lived for many years.
Last week Stephen sent me an e mail and told me he had something of John’s which he wanted to give me. For the life of me I couldn’t think what it was, but I gave Stephen my number and he phoned me later the same day.
Stephen reminded me that after John died his flat was cleared and there were some personal belongings to be disposed of. At the time I had said that the only item which interested me was a picture that had been my mother’s and had been given to John in 2010 after she died.
John attached little or no importance to material things and did not hang the picture on his wall. He was also embarrassed to display the painting because its subject was a group of ballerinas. So they lay neglected in a corner of his bed-sit, the glass got broken, and the picture was forgotten until now.
We’ve arranged to have the painting delivered to relatives in Belfast who remember it well. It hung for many years in the drawing room in Windsor Manse, and it was precious to my mother, because it was painted by a woman whom she admired, perhaps more than anyone else in the world, for her incredible courage.
Elizabeth Twistington Higgins and her sister Janet were close friends of my mother when she nursed in London after the War. Elizabeth made my mother’s wedding dress, and sewed part of the hem with my mother’s golden hair. She was a ballet dancer and my mother took her then fiancé, my father, to see Elizabeth dance in a West End show. But Elizabeth contracted polio and had to give up dancing. She was paralyzed from the neck down, and had to spent much of the rest of her life in an iron lung.
However Elizabeth did not give up living. Although she could only move a few muscles she taught ballet and took up painting. Her paintings were often used in Christmas cards. The subjects were flowers or fruit or ballet dancers. She gave my mother two of these paintings, one of daffodils, which my mother may have passed on to a niece, and the one of the three ballerinas which will soon be returned to me.
Elizabeth appeared in ‘This is Your Life’ with Eamonn Andrews. My mother used to tell her story to Presbyterian Women’s Groups, showing as visual aids the wedding dress, also worn by my sister Anne Louise at her wedding, some Christmas cards, the picture of the ballerinas, and Elizabeth’s autobiography.
The title of Elizabeth Twistington Higgins’ autobiography may have been chosen before by other writers, but none could have given it more meaning : Still Life.
The picture of the ballerinas will remind me of family members who are departed from this world, but are still alive in my mind. I tell more stories about them in The Corncrake’s Welcome. https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/autobiography/the-corncrakes-welcome
Closely Related to Chester 
How poignant!!
That’s so interesting William and I can imagine how precious that painting will be.
Although John attached little importance to material things, it remained one of his possessions – something to be thankful for indeed.
I am grateful for these insights into your family’s lives, especially because I drew closer to your mother and John in their later years.
Carmen
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Glad to have been of help re Seahorse
I have a memory of seeing that picture on a wall when visiting John, maybe a false memory or maybe it fell off the wall and he never put it back.
You will get a brief mention in Presbyterian Notes in Irish Times Saturday 13th, but it doesn’t appear online.
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Many thanks John. Hope all is well. I hear Windsor will finally merge into a South Kirk soon.
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Dear Willie
I received Still Life a week ago but have had computer problems and couldn’t reply. I was delighted to see “the ballet dancers” and to relive my very vivid memories of Honor’s bride’s maid. She came to Belfast before the wedding, I suppose with the dress, and my Mother and Robin and I took her to see the Antrim coast, Cushendall etc. I was knocked for six. Later in London, she arranged for us to see one of her ballets and we got visitors’ treatment. A couple of years later, I was in the territorial army on a course driving armoured cars in Dorset and I went to see her in hospital. She was in an iron lung and unable to move. A fly landed on her head and she had to ask me to chase it. She was so cheerful. Her conversation was all about Hilary and Tensing and the Everest mission who all came to see her to talk about breathing apparatus. She gave Robin and me a book about architecture which I have still in my bookshelves here, Pillar to Post by Osbert Lancaster. Her sister Janet was a great friend of Honor for years.
Lovely to be reminded about those strangely magical years. Thank you for every valued instalment. And now my grand daughter Marianne Wetter is bound for Brussels’. Love to Paola.
Uncle Billy ________________________________
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What interesting memories you have, Uncle Billy. I would never have thought about the connection with the conquest of Everest !
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Dear Willie, I have had a wonderful lunch break, reading Closely Related to Chester and the reactions of your contemporary writers. For me language classes at Inst were sheer boredom for I never connected. The one exception was Johnny Cowser’s Senior Latin class. He, the teacher went on strike and stalked silently up and down the floor while we, the pupils were so scared of failure that we slaved away independently and mostly won distinctions.
Billy
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