Our Em

That has always been the name for our hanging clock in the dining room. We’ve had it for years and it has been in the family, seemingly forever.

Why Em? It once belonged to an Aunty Emily who lived in Christchurch, and who gave it to her brother Freddie who lived not far away from his daughter, my mum.

It is a wind up clock which will go for eight days or so with a pendulum which gives it a certain aplomb. But sadly much of the real beauty was destroyed deliberately. The case once had fancy scrolls but because Fred’s wife – they were my gran and granddad - was quite short in stature and kept knocking into the scrolls, the family decided to saw off the decorative scrolls. Then parts of the ornate frame around the clockface were also broken and never properly replaced.

Time was, when gran and grandad passed on that the clock was to be dumped, had I not stepped in and insisted I should take possession of our Em. Not that the clock is particularly valuable. Unusual and once ornate yes. But still of tremendous sentimental value.

We don’t have the clock working much, although it keeps time well when wound up. Simply that the tick tock of time passing is rather loud and reverberates through the house, particularly if we chose to sleep in the bedroom immediately above.

One day we’ll have it restored professionally. But in the meantime our old Em is a treasure we wouldn’t be without