Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

154 Against the odds revolved around life at 2 College Road. Never having been a domesticated man, like most of his generation, he became ever more reliant on those around him to help meet his basic needs. So, the Russell family was effectively his family. Connie’s bother Gordon, who had married Peggy just after the war, had one child, Jennifer, and he lived a few doors away in College Road, while her sister Emmy lived in nearby Wharfedale Road. Jennifer, as a young teenager, remembers the sedate atmosphere in the house when they made their regular, almost formal, visits to her aunt and uncle for Sunday lunch and a glass of sherry but in November 1963, this gentle existence was shattered when tragedy struck. Connie underwent what was thought to be a routine operation to remove her gall bladder but failed to recover. Before she went into the Duchy House nursing home, Harrogate, she was more anxious about her beloved Maurice than she was herself. “You will look after your uncle Maurice if anything happens to me, won’’t you,” she said to her nephew Geoff. Of course, he told her not to be so silly, but the unthinkable happened. Connie’s skin disease may have been a contributory factor and the debilitating effects of the inflammation of the gall bladder (cholecystitis) would not have helped but, whatever the reason, something went horribly wrong. After the op she developed uraemia and they just couldn’t clear her system in time to prevent irreparable damage. She passed away on November 17, 1963. “Uncle was devastated,” explained Geoff: Even when he was well he couldn’t do much about the house and now, with his Parkinson’s disease, he looked, and pretty much was, helpless. He had thought he was doing the best for auntie, but as a family we very unhappy about the situation and I think more questions ought to have been asked. If uncle had been well I think he would have made more of it but, as it was, he didn’t want to make a fuss. He knew that nothing was going to bring auntie back. Geoff was married and living in Redcar with his wife Rachel and two children, Jane and John, at this time so he was only able