Rene was born on 17th December 1909 at Haringey, north London. She was the only child of Ted and Nell Scales. The photos we have of her as a child give little indication of this, but her mother was not outwardly loving to her. Nell put most of her energy into running her business and it seems that she left little over for attention for her young daughter. This coloured their relationship throughout their lives and they were never close. Her father did much of the caring for her as a small child. He was a much more cuddly sort of person.

Rene spent much of her childhood in hospital because she was partially deaf. She had many operations. Of course, in those days, parents were not encouraged to visit their children, so there must have been many weeks when she did not see her parents. All this meant that Rene grew up to be a very self-contained sort of person, content in her own company.

In World War I (1916) there was an air raid. They were allowed to shelter in the basement of the police station at 38 Canning Road. When they went back home, the front of their house (and two or three others) had been blown off. Rene, who was about six years old, and a friend of hers, were sent to Blackpool for the rest of the war.

Rene worked at Thos. De La Rue who printed foreign bank notes and bonds, Noto fountain pens and playing cards. She worked in the renumbering department, and was very fast at her work. For the last three or four years she was a chargehand. They used to employ people who were deaf and dumb and she used to do the sign language for them. (Rene herself had been partially deaf since childhood.) She could also write a little bit in Yiddish. She stopped working there when she got married, althought she did go back occasionally as a relief.

In the late 1920s or early 30s, Rene had a boyfriend. We have got quite a number of photos from the holiday they took together in the little village of Shere in Surrey. They rented a tiny cottage in the square near the church. This was a serious romance, and Rene's daughter is pretty certain they would have married if he hadn't died suddenly and unexpectedly. Rene's daughter remembers his black funeral card was always in her mother's dressing table drawer throughout her childhood.

Rene married family friend Horie Pickett on 25th August 1934 at St. Paul's Church, Southgate. (Rene and Horie's fathers had been to school together during the 1880s and '90s) Rene and Horie had two children in the next three years. They lived at 139a Friern Park, next door to her parents-in-law, in a house built for them by her father-in-law, Albert Pickett. It must have been a fair sized house because during World War II they had to divide it into two flats, one up, one down, and these were reasonably sized. The downstairs flat, which was where the Picketts lived consisted of a large room at the front, where Rene, Horie and their daughter slept. As well as all the furniture, there was a Morrison shelter in the room. There was also a living room, kitchen and another bedroom for their son. They shared the bathroom with the Percy family, who lived upstairs.

Because of her deafness, Rene couldn't hear the air raid siren. They had a dog, Taffy, who was part Welsh sheepdog. He 'told' her when the siren went (and also when the all clear was given!) so that she knew when to take shelter. Taffy was an incredibly intelligent dog, who used to get on the bus, by himself, for Southgate to visit Rene's parents.

Before the war, Rene's parents had bought a bungalow at 17 Woodman Avenue, Swalecliffe, on the north Kent coast. Rene and Horie occasionally were able to use this for family holidays. In 1943, Rene and her two children moved down there for a few months. The children went to the local school for about a term. They used to be taken into a church hall for their school dinner and someone played the piano to them. Rene's daughter also remembers going to school in London prior to this. Every afternoon the children were taken outside to lie on mats in the sun - ricketts was a serious problem at the time. During the war, children at school were given some very gloopy orange juice concentrate for its vitamin C.

In 1947 she had a thyroid operation and was in hospital for months. Her two children were taken to their Pickett grandparents in Dane Hill in Sussex. Horie was able to visit the children one weekend. Rene had somehow, despite rationing, managed to get hold of two peaches for the children. Although thoroughly enjoying her summer, Rene's daughter immediately became very homesick when she saw her father. She cried and cried, so he took them home to north London for the weekend. Horie had been taking advantage of the family being away from home and had done some decorating. He'd done the front bedroom with stippling - it was fashionable then! Once Rene had recovered, she and Horie went down to Dane Hill to collect the children. Rene's appearance had changed so much in the intervening months that her daughter did not recognise her.

In the summer of 1948, the family moved out to Tankerton on the north Kent coast. This was close to Rene's parent's bungalow in Swalecliffe. Horie built them a beach hut on Tankerton beach at the bottom of the slopes. They had a rowing boat (bought for £10) and a canoe made by their son. This beach hut was very well made. During the Great Floods of 1953, most of the others were flattened, but this one remained standing.

Rene was my grandmother. She died when I was 25, so I have many memories of her. Despite her deafness, she could hear a little. She was good at lip reading, and we were always taught to speak loudly and clearly, facing her so that she could hear us. She was also gifted musically. Although she couldn't read music, she could easily pick out a tune on her piano. I often remember her sitting at the piano playing to us, in her house at Charlton St. Peter in Wiltshire. She also loved to dance, and I remember her teaching us to do the Charleston when she was in her 60s. I think this was probably round about 1974, when the film The Great Gatsby came out. She was short (about five feet tall) and was a little barrel of a woman in later life.

Rene died in May 1984. She had been ill for quite a while with heart problems.