BY THE TIME I was born, sadly both my grandfathers had passed away and my paternal grandmother lived more than fifty miles from us so I saw little of her because during the Second World War travel was not encouraged. My maternal grandmother had a big influence on my life and I remember clearly the Saturday morning ritual of black leading the grate, whitening the step, polishing the brass and my first responsibility – taking her accumulator to be recharged for her wireless and collecting the one from the week before! I hated my first glasses so much that I put them through her vast mangle and found myself in serious trouble!
My daughters, Anna and Victoria, were very fortunate in having my wife Helen’s mother Margaret in their lives for a very long time and they saw her as being loving and fun. She devoted her life to their well-being and made it possible to always be available if we had to travel and she was the best babysitter in the world. We have the good fortune of having four grandchildren: Anna and her husband Adam’s daughters are Clementine aged eleven, Eloise nine, and Victoria and Tim’s children are Archie, seven and Kate, four.
When Archie was thirteen months he was struck down by a life-threatening brain virus and finished up in intense care at St George’s Hospital, Tooting. They have an amazing paediatric unit that really did rescue him. My daughter Victoria wanted to repay the hospital staff and as a result created a bedtime story book compiled with the help of celebrities. Stars at Bedtime sold in excess of 100,000 copies and the outcome was it raised sufficient funds for the hospital to buy a desperately needed scanner. What was very extraordinary was a year to the day my granddaughter Eloise became seriously ill and finished up in the same ward but in the next bed. Therefore our grandchildren are particularly precious to us – so much so, that Helen my wife has become a trustee of a very worthwhile charity which is well worth joining – the Grandparents’ Association. It is not generally realised that grandparents do not have rights of access and with so many families not staying together, this is a serious issue.
Terry Mansfield CBE retired as President and CEO of The National Magazine Company in 2004 and is now retained by The Hearst Corporation as Consultant. Amongst his many other activities he is Chairman of Graduate Fashion Week and works with both the London Week of Peace and the Historic Royal Palaces Campaign Board. Throughout his media career he has made it his mission to find the best talent in the industry.