Mothers Profile.

Muriel Dodd Asquith was born in Stoneycroft, Liverpool on the 11th. January 1919 youngest daughter to Richard and Flora, her sister was Constance.

Richard worked in his later years on the dredgers as chief engineer, earlier he was on cargo vessels travelling to the far east, the Indies and Japan. Flora was a house wife.

Muriel had a quite childhood although once when she and Connie were naughty they were sent to bed with dried bread for their tea as punishment. In bed they made a pretend game and that they were on a boat (which was the bed) and started to throw the bread onto the floor to feed the ducks, their mother was cross and the children had a strict childhood.

Muriel was never a very healthy child, once she got run over once by a car on Queens Drive in Liverpool, the doctor advised that Muriel would be better off in the country side, so the family moved to Lydiate where her father bought a piece of land, her Uncle (her Dads brother) was a builder and built a bungalow, this was 15, Sandy Lane, Lydiate, named Oak Corner after the Oak tree in the corner of the ground surrounded by silver birch trees.

Flora had one or two fainting fits and the doctor told them she should not be left alone so when Constance left school she stayed at home to look after her.

Flora was also a psychic whereby her hand used to start shaking and she would reach for pen and paper and start writing messages down, one occasion she wrote a letter from a boy who was killed in the war. She also wrote the sermon that the Minister at the local Methodist Church would be giving on Sunday.

The family were very religious and believed in the Methodist Church.

When Muriel left school she went to work at Dawcetts Bakery in Ormskirk as a connectionist’s apprentice, later she went on to work at Southport and Liverpool.

When she at Dawcetts, her friend asked her to go on a blind date with her boyfriend’s friend, which she did and had her first date with John Finch. All four of them went to the cinema.

Eventually she married John on the 20th. April 1940 and as it was still wartime she carried on living with her parents at Oak Corner.

On 13th. April 1941, Colin was born in Ormskirk Hospital, the start of a large family. Muriel decided to move to Wallasey in Cheshire, where Douglas, Marilyn and Jacqueline were born.

In 1951 the Finch Family moved again, this time to Ormskirk to a new council house, 41, Whittle Drive. Three weeks later after moving in Dorothy Ann was born, followed by 15 months later Eric, then John, Edward, Sandra and finally Graham.

Richard died of creeping paralysis and Flora died in a nursing home of old age.

Later with the children growing, Muriel had a part time job cleaning for Mrs Sawyer who lived in Ruff Lane, but had enough to do at home with the arrival home of the children, cleaning, cooking, making and repairing clothes, knitting pullies and cardigans for the children was endless. She was always doing something. When she stopped working for Mrs Sawyer she took on a cleaning job at Pigotts Foundations which she enjoyed.

On 10th. September 1991, John her husband died from a heart attack or stroke after falling down the stairs. Muriel was left on her own in the large house, everybody had left the nest to get married and start their own families.

Muriel was frightened at being on her own and when she was little she would not go up the stairs without Constance. One day she plucked up courage to go upstairs on her own when suddenly a cat came running down the stairs and shot out of the front door. This frightened Muriel more as they didn’t have a cat, these thoughts came back when she was alone in Whittle Drive alone.

Muriel’s health was getting worse, the house too big for her so she decided to go into sheltered accommodation at Ellerbrook House on County Road where Constance her sister had lived for a couple of years. She enjoyed this move and soon got involved with all the activities and excursions that where organised.

Muriel started hobbies, painting with water colours and oils, painting objects such as stones for door stops, kitchen utensils and many pictures including silk and cloth painting. She made marmalade and jams for the ‘bring and buy’ sales at the home to boost the funds.

Her health was deteriating further and went into hospital on numerous occasions with breathing problems related to asthma to have her chest cleared. One time when she came out of hospital, the next day she broke her hip and had to be readmitted for an operation. She caught an infection in the hospital which didn’t help matters, Muriel got over the operation but she couldn’t go home as she was having more respitory problems, she stayed in several months and was eventually discharged and went to stay in a nursing home which she enjoyed but unfortunately she was only there for a few days when she was rushed back to hospital where she died on the 1st. March 2004. Her ashes were laid to rest with her husband John in the cemetery of Ormskirk Parish Church.