THERE’S AN OLD saying about nothing ever being free and in our household that notion was instilled in us generation after generation. My dad often gets the credit – and rightly so – for my becoming an entrepreneur, but the story is slightly more complicated. You see, my grandmother actually hired my dad into the family grocery business in New Cumnock and gave him his entrepreneurial spurs.
I never met my granddad but my grandmother, who literally ate, breathed and slept the shop (her flat was above it), was a formidable character who cut such an imposing figure that for me as a wee boy made me slightly fearful, but as with every granny she had a heart of gold. For as long as I can remember she ran that shop until dad took over and she meant a great deal to me, in fact I think she was everyone’s granny in New Cumnock; she looked out for us all.
We had one ritual with my granny; Saturday pocket money. It was then you earned your money, because, as I’ve said, nothing comes free. My two sisters and I would skip upstairs to her flat, take up position one after the other on her knee and have to tell her about our week, warts and all. She had a bit of a bark about her, I guess, as most grandparents do, but it was most certainly worse than her bite. She cared for us, lived through us and instilled a deep admiration in me for a woman who could stand her own in what was then most definitely a man’s world.
As a nation we reflect too little on just what lessons we can learn from our elders – although through this book, as ever, Sarah is trying to right that wrong.
Tom Hunter is a serial entrepreneur and philanthropist.