Dilys Paes
Dr Paes asked me could I drive a car? I said, ‘No, but I would like to learn’. He said “I'll teach you”. We started when he had time off, picking me up and teaching me to drive. I still had to get a provisional license. In those days a provisional license only lasted three months, and I had quite a collection of them eventually, because we didn't go out on a regular basis. He kept saying, “We'll keep renewing” and we became good friends and we went out as often as we could, and he was very good to my Mum and Dad.
I decided things were getting a little bit cramped for me. I wanted to have more experience, and I said to Mum and Dad that I was going to apply for another post out of Holywell. In the meantime, Dr Paes who had this partnership with Dr Chaudry, decided he wanted to branch out on his own and he was going to go to Liverpool because that's where he started his general practice. He came over to this country, to do a further degree in gynaecology and obstetrics, but he and his cousin Alex had left it too late to get into Edinburgh, but they did get into a Dublin University and he had a very high qualification. His father was unable to send him money because the Indian government wouldn't allow it, so he had to get a job to make money to keep himself. He got a job as an assistant in a local practice and became a practice doctor in Liverpool. He thought he would like to set up his own practice in Liverpool, knowing the area, and this is what he did.
I applied for a job in Huyton and I got a job in Longview infants’ school and Miss Thomas, the head teacher, was a very nice person. She was very helpful and recommended a friend of hers who could put me up. I met Elizabeth Neil who became almost like a second Mum. She supported me in everything and we had such fun. She was teacher as well. We used to go Saturday morning shopping down in town and oh, we really did have fun, and she met Dr Tony Paes of course. We got engaged at the Christmas time and we were married the following Easter on 19 April 1954 and I was married from Elizabeth's house. She became a wonderful friend to me, Tony and children. I learned what it was like to be a doctor's wife. I married not only a doctor but also a telephone and a front door bell. I was tied to the house, but I met such lovely people.
We were on our honeymoon in Looe in Cornwall for a week and met Dr Joe O’Donovan, a big Irish doctor with a single practice like us. He was in Childwall and, to cut a long story short, they became such friends that they used to look after each other's practices in order to have a holiday. Joe's patients got used to Tony and Tony’s patients got used to Joe. He was quite a character and we had a lot of fun with him.
Whilst we were on our honeymoon, we had this call from Alex, Tony's cousin, to say that his wife and two daughters were coming from Goa, and they were landing at Southampton on the Saturday. We'd been there a week and Tony decided that because Joe was willing to carry on and Mum was willing to stay in Liverpool, we would stay another week. Alex's family were coming at the end of our second week. We got back on the Friday, and on the Saturday, we went over to Rawmarsh, Yorkshire. I was again answering phones and Tony sorting the surgery. Alex and Flora later had four children Shanti, Jini, Rabi and Sita and we all became such great friends.
I carried on a teaching until I found out I was expecting a baby, and we had our first baby on 17 April 1955, two days before our first wedding anniversary. Helena was born in Park House nursing home, weighing in at 7 pounds. I was so thrilled. I made a lot of things for her, as in those days we didn't go out and buy everything. You were supposed to make things, embroider things and knit things which I did joyfully.
We had a very big house. Tony needed a big house because that's where he had his surgery. It was in Edge Lane, one of the main roads leading to Liverpool. We were not the only ones living there because when Tony bought it, it had almost finished being converted into three flats. One person had already moved in, this was Stanley Wilkinson who was a school teacher. Stanley agreed he would have the top second floor as his flat, so that we had the ground floor for the waiting room, the consulting room, the living room and kitchen. Then we had four bedrooms and the bathroom so we had plenty of room. In fact, we had more room than we needed at that time, but it was lovely having Mum and Dad coming over, and Selwyn would ring up and ask, “Can I come over?”, “What are you having for lunch today?” so we had plenty of visitors. Friends would come over for shopping and often stayed the night and Gwyn, of course, would come over until she Ernest moved over into the Liverpool area and bought a house in Huyton. Stanley had left by this time, and they and their daughter Jane stayed with us, supposedly for nine months while they looked for a house. It turned out to be two and a half years. By this time John, David and Felicia had been born. Jane went to the same convent infant school as Helena and the boys. It was a lovely house. It had everything, a huge garage and a minute garden, but we could we take the children to the local parks.
It was strange sort of life because I felt I had married a doorbell and the telephone. We couldn't go anywhere unless we were sure there was somebody to take a message or someone to attend an emergency. Then there was a Locum business, which meant that from 1pm Saturday to 7am Monday we could transfer the phone to them. We put a notice on the door for people to phone in case of emergency, and that worked absolutely beautifully for us. We even bought a caravan in North Wales and we were able to go away for weekends for many years, even after Tony became ill. In 1975, Tony had a heart attack, followed by a stroke. The practice continued for 15 months with locums before it finally closed.
1979 was a memorable year: in February, John and Lisa were married; in April, Tony and I celebrated 25 years of marriage; in May, Tony walked Helena down the aisle to marry Richard, and in August I turned 50! Tony died 31 January 1980. A few years later, I sold Edge Lane, John and Lisa sold their house, and we bought a house together in Woolton village, where we live now.