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Has anyone ever met somebody who completely changes their life. I did. Pily came into my life when I was around 7 years old. She lived in a massive Victorian house right next to my school, a class mates Mum introduced my Mum to Pilly, and that was that. My twin sister Anita and I declared from that moment that Pilly was our fairy godmother, and she really was.
With a mass of flowing long red hair and huge Lennon style glasses, with clear porcelain skin and rosy red cheeks, always accompanied by a light brown lippie, she sure was an exotic creature. She was a photographer and always had her Camera on a round her shoulders ready to snap something or someone.
Pilly was born in Paris in 1937. Her parents Tanks and Phemie were living there, as soon as Pilly was born they fled to Ireland as the Nazi's had started to invade France. They led a very bohemian lifestyle in Ireland and rented a flat in the left wing of a very grand castle called Tullynally in Castlepollard near Mullingar. I spent many every Summer holiday and some winters in this castle as a young teenager, even having my first Tequila experience with the son's of Thomas Pakenham who owned the Castle (Anita had her first ever bout of alcohol poisoning - Ahhh the good old days) We also used to stay in Pilly's Auntie Maggie's cottage in Scotland during half term. A picturesque little cottage with ghosts and pear trees.
As a young adult Pilly moved to London where she sold her fabulous home made pottery at Arts and Craft fairs whilst doing photography on the side. Here in London is where Pilly met her husband, documentary maker Adrian Cowell. They fell in love and married and soon after had a baby daughter called Boojie. Adrian was away a lot as he made documentaries in Brazil and America, mainly based on the hidden tribes of Brazil. Pilly often joined him to take photographs and on one expedition to the jungle, in an area called Xingu, Pilly conceived a beautiful son whom she called...Xingu (beat that Brooklyn Beckham)
So with Boojie and Xingu in tow, Adrian and Pilly bought this beautiful big house in Tufnell Park, right next to Tufnell Park Primary School, and where I was to spend so many happy days.
Tragedy struck for Pilly when Xingu was killed in a canoeing accident during professional competition in Austria. He was only eighteen. Pilly was distraught and said it was the love and support of friends around her that saved her life.
She continued to do Pottery and live half the time in London and half the time in the castle in Ireland with me and Anita staying with her as often as we could. She had this fabulous array of beautiful and glamorous friends with funny names and titles, lords and ladies, nieces and nephews and cousins. Everyone who Pilly knew seemed rosy cheeked and jolly and slightly mad! Including Micky, Pilly's brother who has a farm in Ireland, whom I absolutely adore. Eccentric all night dinner parties were something my sister and I became quite used to! At one of them you had the head of Channel 4 having a full blown debate with Toothless Joe the builder from down the road. Life at Pilly's was never dull. She always had an abundance of Dogs and Cats, at one stage having 8 dogs; Bibo, Axel, Rosie, Rags, Bobby, Pepsi, Pingu and Scruffy. Not to mention all the others along the years Paddywack, Paddy, Cally... Too many to remember!!
She always had a roaring fire place, beautiful food on the go in the Aga in her large jungle like kitchen due to all the plants, and she always, always had lashings of vodka and tonic!! Someone commented at Pilly's funeral that he's never been to a house where so many unannounced guests popped in during the day, and they were all welcomed with a drink, a bowl of spaghetti and a wise old chat (peppered with filthy jokes and a very cheeky sense of humour) round the fire place.
She was quite simply one a kind, she drove round London in a battered Morris Minor with dogs in the back and a camera in her pocket, a long silk scarf round her neck blowing in the wind. And that is how I will always remember her.
The woman who let me and Anita live with her aged 16 because we could not live with our mother who was battling alcoholism after the death of her husband, and again at 22 when I broke up with a boyfriend with whom I shared a flat with! the woman who taught us that life is fun, spontaneous, sometimes sad but worth it. The woman who after a few vodkas used to fall over her dogs and belly laugh whilst I carried her to bed (very difficult when your laughing so much yourself) the woman who's laugh I will never ever forget and who I miss so so much.
The woman who I owe everything to and made me the person I am today.
Such a special person who I can never replace.
Goodbye Pilly. Xxxxx
This is a very fitting tribute to Pilly, my crossover in Tufnel Park was a lot more brief, my experience was more in the Castle. What times! So long ago but the memories are with me all these years later, they never go away. There are so many memory triggers that bring me back to that time, not least by being in Epping Forest so much near to where I live now. I was in Sierra Leone when Pilly died and the news was slow to get to me, otherwise I would have made Pilly's goodbye. That is a disappointment that has not dissipated since 2012. So good to see her memory being written about.
ReplyDeleteGarrett