My Naughty Little Sister – My Family Roots And Shoots

and the 50th Birthday

My sister celebrates her 50th birthday this year – 2021, but in my eyes she will ever be ‘5 years old’

One of my favourite books as a child, was ‘My Naughty Little Sister’ by Dorothy Edwards, illustrated by Shirley Hughes, and I couldn’t help noticing the similarities. 🤣

A little more than 50 years ago, on a day out to Old Mother Shiptons Cave in Knaresborough, with our Grandparents, I made a wish!

Old Mother Shipton, lived as a reclusive ‘witch’ in a cave in the 1400’s, and was supposed to be a seer. As an attraction, it is also famous for it’s petrifying water and wishing well in her cave. I was instructed to make a wish, but couldn’t decide on whether I should wish for a pet rabbit, or baby sister. In the end I plumped for a sister. Soon after this, my wish came true, when sister Elizabeth Anne, was born in June 1971. We were instructed she was to be called Elizabeth, never Liz, and it was Anne with an ‘e’.

I wasn’t sure I had made the right choice, when I saw the contents of her newborn nappy. She was named as a ‘Witches Daughter’, by her loving siblings. And known as ‘Liz’, by everyone else!

Weighing in at almost 10lbs, she made her presence known, and as the chattiest of the three of us, has always managed to keep the conversations going.