My Grandmother's "Feelings"

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My mother was born on 26 February 1909 in Broadstairs, Kent, the third child of Edith and ‘Chad’ Horne. I think that her childhood was happy, though the family went through some hard times after her father died. She would often tell us stories about her life in Kent as a girl and, as children, we always clamoured for more of what she called her ‘happenings’. There were several which involved my grandmother’s apparent second sight, all of which, I think, involved keeping the family from harm. One which I remember her telling often was set on a particularly gloomy and wet Sunday when all the family were gathered in the front room engaged in the the sort of quiet and absorbing activities which children of the day were expected to do on a Sunday afternoon. All of a sudden, my grandmother stood up and said, “We must go for a walk, dears!” Everyone said, “Oh no, Mother! We don’t need to go for a walk in this weather, surely?” But my grandmother insisted, saying that it was something they had to do. Of course, nobody wanted to and there were many grumbles but my grandmother was adamant and hurried the children on with their boots and gaiters and overcoats and scarves. It really was a most cold and damp and uninviting day but out they all dutifully trooped to walk along a muddy country footpath. After they had been walking for about 10 minutes or quarter or an hour - no longer - my grandmother said, “I think it’s time to go home now.” and so they turned round and headed for home. Surely, my mother thought, the most pointless and tiresome walk they had ever been asked to do! When they arrived home, everyone was astonished to see that the front window was smashed and there was broken glass all over the place where they had so recently been sitting! It was concluded that a car passing had kicked up a stone with enough force to break the window but nobody could explain it, since motor cars were rare and there was very little traffic along that road, especially on a Sunday afternoon. Even more astonishing was that my grandmother had so urgently shepherded the whole family out of the house for no reason at all, that anyone could see. When asked about it later, all she would say was, “Well, dear, I just had one of my ‘feelings’!”