Age: Late seventies

Lives: 25 Piper Street.

Appearance: 5’ 9” tall. His once wiry shape is now generously rounded and a good head of white hair frames his weather-tanned face. His eyes, although now rheumy, are still a startling blue.

Charlie has a ready wit and is one of life’s optimists, believing strongly that if something goes wrong it is only because there is something better waiting for him.

Family: Wife: Edna

             Son: Peter

Background: Charlie was born in Woodbury, the son of Maisie and Selwyn Smith, a postman. He can still dimly remember the arrival of Edna into his aunt and uncle’s household and laughs as he recounts the tale that he was disappointed the latest adopted baby was not another boy. He would often ride into Upper Milliwick on his bike to visit the family and help Edna’s brothers with their allotted chores so that they would then be free to play in the fields beyond the house.

As he grew older, he worked alongside the boys in the market garden to earn pocket money. He enjoyed the work and had green fingers according to Albert, who would boast that his nephew could ‘grow apples on a banana tree’. With two of his adopted sons keen to go into the business, Albert could not afford to take Charlie on when he left school, much as he would have liked to. He did, however, put in a word for him with the butler at The Manor House in Milliwick where he delivered greengrocery and Charlie was taken on as an under-gardener. He did well over the next few years, proving reliable and hard working, if ‘a little cheeky at times’ according to Ingram Brooks, the head gardener.

On hearing that he was to be promoted to gardener, Charlie dropped into a pub on his way home from work intending to have a single half pint by way of small celebration but when invited to also wet the head of the landlord’s newly arrived baby he accepted with repeated and increasingly slurred enthusiasm.  Feeling very unwell as he continued on his journey, Charlie decided to bed down in the barn at Aunt Florrie’s. Unfortunately, he and his bicycle failed to make the turn into the driveway and he lay stunned and very drunk in the ditch at its side until discovered by his uncle the next morning. Charlie had always treated Edna with the same disregard as he did his own sister, her constant presence making her almost invisible, but while she bathed his cuts and grazes, he suddenly realised what a pretty young woman she had become and the chance to be that close to her more than compensated for the ear bashing that Albert gave him. Enduring the stern lecture on the evils of drink was worth it as far as Charlie was concerned.

Unable to get her out of his mind but not wanting to make a fool of himself or embarrass her in front of the family, he decided to engineer a chance meeting and ‘just happened’ to be cycling past near where Edna worked as she stood waiting at the bus stop. It was obvious to him that his feelings were reciprocated when the impetuous kiss he gave after thanking her for taking care of him resulted in Edna blushing rather than pushing him away.

It took Charlie a fortnight to pluck up enough courage to go and ask Edna out, not so much because he feared rejection but because he worried about his aunt and uncle’s reaction to the idea but Florrie gave him a knowing smile, which puzzled him, and all Albert had to say on the matter was ‘If she’s daft enough to have you, go ahead.’ Edna was daft enough and they were married shortly after her twenty-first birthday.

Charlie and Edna have had their ups and downs. Edna is more practical than the happy-go-lucky Charlie, which occasionally causes friction if she thinks he is being less serious than the situation merits but even his innate optimism was shaken each time Edna miscarried. He was extremely worried about her and it was not until then, when his concern was so obvious, she understood that his resolutely cheerful manner sometimes hid his real feelings. It was a sad time for them but one that brought them even closer together because of that understanding.

Currently: Charlie is beginning to feel his age but is still a keen gardener for all that. He is enjoying his retirement despite occasionally getting grumbled at for being under Edna’s feet. He likes to stroll around the village, especially to the local pub for a game of dominoes or cribbage.

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CHARLIE SMITH

Used to work as gardener at The Manor House

Married to Edna