We celebrated our 65th Wedding Anniversary last December at Land between the Lakes, KY with our two sons.
Andrew Christine Dorothy Neil Charles
When I remembered our Golden Wedding Anniversary in 2008 the 65th Celebration seemed quite tame.
Back in 2008, we had all our friends, neighbours, and family over for a party at our house on Churchill Drive in Marietta. Sherry Deaton got a cake for us from Jole Kobe’s bakery, and it was the most delicious, different, non-cake cake I have ever had.
Dorothy Andrew Sherrie
We got to see so many friends who stopped by with good wishes, bottles of wine and congratulations for our 50 years. It was wonderful to see so many people and for everyone to visit with each other.
Neil Dorothy Andrew Charles
After we had the party in Georgia, we took a flight to Edinburgh just before Christmas. We were able to go to Christmas Church services with my sister on Christmas Eve. We walked through the streets of Edinburgh in snow flurries to get to the Presbyterian Church. We enjoyed the choir singing our traditional Christmas hymns and watched the wee children bringing wrapped gifts for the poor to the Church to help us remember the real reason for the Season.
We loved staying with my sister in Edinburgh as her flat was in a genuinely nice neighbourhood, with handy bus stops and close to great restaurants. Her apartment overlooked a lovely walking trail frequented by mums with babies in prams, boys in football gear, dog walkers and many people jogging.
In the Edinburgh newspapers there was an article about a person finding a severed head in a paper carrier bag on a favourite walking trail. It was assumed it must have come from a funeral home and investigations were being made. …
Someone lost their head??
There was a lot of speculation in the papers and jokes on the radio about where the severed head had come from.
From Creena’s living room window one afternoon we saw police cars parked in the parking lot for the walking/jogging trail called Hawthorne Vale Path and we wondered what was going on. We didn’t have to wonder too long because on the TV news that night we were told how a lady walking her dog had found a human leg in the underbrush on the side of the jogging trail right under Creena’s window.
Every night on the news on TV we were kept updated on what other body parts had been found and it appeared that they were in this same path. More police cars came and brought a canine team, a forensic team and different uniforms were seen all over the place.
It was like a scene out of “Law and Order” with police tape strung all over and men with what looked like fishing tackle boxes open with little bottles and plastic envelopes.
It seems the joggers and baby walkers were not headed away from the scene because we saw joggers leaping over the forensic policemen bent over their work.
Every day we were out enjoying the sights and sounds of Christmas in Edinburgh. There was skating in Princes Street Gardens, A German Style Christmas Market, a Fairground with a huge Ferris wheel and Igloos with Santas talking to the children.
We would return to my sister’s flat in the late afternoon to witness the developing crime scene, right outside the window, we just sat on the couch and watched while it was narrated on TV on the news. We got more details from the Edinburgh newspapers.
It was finally determined that the re-assembled body was that of a woman who had four children. There had been a husband or two somewhere along the line, but they were not in the picture.
I wondered why no one had reported her missing, especially when we found out that she had four children. She had two older children from her first marriage who were adults with their own families and two younger children who were being raised by her ex’s new wife and it is supposed she was not in touch with any of them……
so…who killed her, cut up her body and scattered the pieces all over the Hawthorne Vale Path?
While all this was unfolding, we had a series of celebratory events. We made up a theatre party arranged by my sister and went to see “The Proclaimers” in a theatre in Leith.
Some of my cousins came with us and we all talked about those of us who stayed in Edinburgh and those of us who emigrated to other lands.
Another group made up a party to go to the Pantomime at the Kings theatre in Edinburgh. The Pantomime is a must if you happen to be in Britain at Christmas time. Everyone talks about the “Panto” and what all the satirical jokes were about that were being incorporated into the exaggerated Children’s fairy story. This year it was “Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp.”
The Genie had a magnificent voice, the other characters were very colourful and the story included lots of bad guys to be boo-ed at by the children and lots of heroes to get roaring hurrahs. Pantomimes are very much audience-participation. The jokes reflect what is going on with local city administration or politicians.
Peter Pan live stage production was the first Christmas Pantomime I remember seeing in Edinburgh when I was very young.
My sister also arranged a big Golden Anniversary party in a hotel with refreshments.
All my Scottish family and friends were there and we had a belly dancer to entertain us.
Claire George's Granddaughter Joyce
Quite a few of the ladies present were coached by the belly dancer. I have so many pictures from that night of family members who are no longer with us.
Elsie Claire Elizabeth Creena Douglas Sheila Michael
Sheila and Bill carving the bird
Christmas dinner was at a friend’s place down in Peebles, a border town close to Rosslyn Chapel of 'The DaVinci Code" fame. Sheila and Bill did a wonderful job on the turkey with all the trimmings and Christmas Crackers (the kind that pop with prizes, jokes, and paper hats) to complete the picture.
The Boxing Day party at my nephew’s house was outstanding with so many presents, so many friendly faces, so much great food and such great fun with brain twisting games.
On the actual day of our 50th Wedding Anniversary, we took the InterCity train to London and went to see “The Thirty-Nine Steps”, a live play at a West End theatre.
We stayed at a Marriott where Neil had upgraded our reservation to a great big suite. This room was so big we could jog around in it. It looked like we would have to jog to get warm as the place was freezing. The suite was located above the function rooms and when they are not in use, they are not heated which meant that no matter how many space heaters they brought to our suite it was never going to get warmed up. The temperatures in London at the end of December that year were way below normal. We had the hotel move us back to our original room and we were toasty. We had another couple of days in London, going to museums, theatre, seeing the sights and enjoying great food, like this full English Breakfast.
We took the train back to Edinburgh on 31 December, New Years Eve. Edinburgh is the absolute best place to be for New Year’s Eve as the whole city is one big street party with headline bands playing in Princes Street Gardens, concerts everywhere, fireworks from the Castle and Auld Lang Syne being played and sung where it was written.
The mystery of the “Severed Head” was still being investigated right under our noses and each day brought out something more bizarre than the day before.
We discovered that the victim had lived in Granton, which is a village along the riverfront from Newhaven where my sister lived. The lessee of this property claimed he did not know this lady as he did not live at that location.
Another party on New Year’s Day at a cousin’s house where we had more great food and Christmas Goodies and visits with more cousins and family.
Charles Dorothy Pamela
It is always good fun to see Joyce and Charles because they tell tales about their latest foreign holiday - probably to somewhere like Prague or Albania.
Back to my sister’s flat to watch more police search the path for clues right outside the window. It seems that the lessee of the flat did know the lady who was dismembered, but he claims he did not kill her. They found evidence in the apartment that the body was indeed cut up there.
My sister and I got into a long discussion on how to dismember a body. What kind of tools would be required, was this performed in the kitchen or the bathroom. How was the place cleaned up?
Ronald Jennifer Kathleen Creena Pamela
My cousin Ronald always has interesting guests at his parties, and they are world travelers as well. Ronald, for example took a container ship cruise around the world….and he spent a few days on holiday in Cuba. He has even been to see us in Georgia and up to our cottage at Lake Malone where he went kayaking from our dock.
It's almost the end of our Golden Anniversary Trip with a couple more theatre parties hosted by my brother. The theatre parties are usually started at some really nice restaurant for a meal before we take our seats in the theatre. The centre of Edinburgh is such that one can walk to just about everything very handily.
Creena Bill Dorothy
When we left to return to the USA, we did not know the whole story of the “Case of the Severed Head,” but my sister sent newspaper clippings to me of the arrest and the trial of the man who rented the flat where the body was cut up.
“I Didnae Dae It,” “It Wizna Me” the perpetrator claimed and he got off! In Scotland trials can end in “Guilty,” “Not Guilty” or “Not Proven.” It could not be proved that he actually killed her.
He claimed that she had died, possibly of natural causes or more likely a drug overdose and he had cut up her body and dispersed the body parts, but he did not kill her. He went to prison for 14 years for all the other crimes he committed.
I later read the court case online and it was even more bizarre than was first known. The perpetrator did have a relationship with this woman. When she died her remains were left in the flat for about a year just rotting away. He admitted moving her rotting torso from room to room before sawing and cutting up her body.
When this boyfriend. found her dead, he did not call the police, but he pretended she was still alive and used her ID to get her welfare checks and other monies. He used her phone to let anyone who called get the impression she was still alive. It was easy to cut up the body with a hacksaw and parcel up the bits - the body was so rotten it just fell apart and then he disposed of the body parts on Hawthorne Valley Path under my sister’s window.
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