The Secrets Women Keep

My Mum’s Mum died in 1953. I wear her wedding ring on my pinkie. She was 5 feet 4, born and brought up in Linlithgow and she married my Granda, a man from Lochee, a veteran of WW1, on Hogmanay almost a century ago. Some aspects of my Gran’s story are not mine to tell. Her experiences include rearing two sons and a daughter during the war, on a farm in Fife, living in a draughty broken-down farm cottage, when her man was away on service, beholden to a farmer boss. Use your imagination.

My Dad’s Mum died in 1981. Her Dad was a Scots Guard and a Glasgow policeman. Her Mum was in service for a while before marrying. Gran was pregnant at least 15 times and several of her children predeceased her. Gran was a woman of stature, intelligence and a stern expression. Her Latin roots and prefixes echo around the corners of my mind. I wear a ring of hers on my left middle finger and I think about her every day. It really hurts to know her husband died just after they’d taken their two wee daughters to welcome the Queen to Alva and Grandad’s death meant eviction from a tied Co-op home. Loyalty and fealty were worthless. The Queen wouldn’t put a roof over their heads but expected wee bairns dressed up waving flags and curtseying. Thereby is my pride at the stern expression I wear daily. I pray it never leaves me. 

My Mum and my Aunties, Ellen,Mary, Evie, Margaret, Norah, Maryanne, every single one taught me about life, love, hurt, pain, betrayal and hope. Each was a mother, a friend and a supporter. They all understood male dominance and not one, not bloody one of them, could have withstood the rage, the determination, the complete foolhardiness we have witnessed in Scotland these last few years. They were not weak or cowardly – they’d worked miracles through years of poverty, want and being skint. But each of those women in peenies and staring at the hacks of their broken hurt hands know that a man claiming to be a woman has no right in the spaces women dug for ourselves.

Sandie Peggie speaks for every woman of Scotland, even for those who know not what they do.  Scotland should stand by and beside Sandie Peggie. She is the best of us. #WomenWontWheesht.