Thanks to Kay Medway for submitting this poem recounting her memories of her Auntie Em working in the theatre in Northampton in the ’50s and making a famous friend along the way!

Today how quickly

a conversation calls on your memories & the

family stories long since told

by a Great Aunt both Theatrical and respected.

As if to awaken the unending family curiosities.

As if to pique a young daughter’s interests

in an uncertain time. I listen

as quickly as if the words we will transcribe to pages.

You beam and recall the actor Errol Flynn

was once alongside your great aunt Em

forming a friendship and a bond

in our hometown that now carefully reawakens.

I am there when I listen.

The 1950s and 1960s, with

Great Aunt Em at Northampton’s Royal Theatre

finding her work as an usher and dressmaker.

Before the wondrous years, there was

Her boarding house, her family home,

the portrait of a friendship takes shape.

Auntie Em always well-liked and with the young actor

Errol Flynn as a friend. 

We are back to the start of

An acting career, learning lines, and visiting a home.

A good friend with even a holiday to Scotland.

These stories all rekindle my love of

The Golden Age of Hollywood.

The scenes still etched in my mind with pride. 

And now to learn the familiar, something new

spanning generations, that reassures us

In theatre, we always find our home for all.