I received the following email a little while ago with the above picture and the following message, which explains itself:This is Dot Mossop, or as I am now, Nikki Jansson. My husband gave me the nickname Nikki because I did not feel like a Dorothy. I was still at Millom and aged 16 at that time. This year we will have been married 45 years so I have been answering to Nikki longer than I have Dot - in fact I squashed the Dot bit years ago!. Dorothy is not so bad, Dorothy Elizabeth is just fine but it is me and I am delighted with the new information I have just received via Ann Barnett. (Warner)
I was nursing in London when we got married in 1962. My husband Bob did a post. doc. fellowship at U.C.L.A. (Los Angeles) so the first two years of married life was in the States. Then we returned to England and he was a Senior Lecturer at Southampton University so we lived in Hampshire where our three children were born. In 1981 he accepted a job with Monsanto and we returned to America - St. Louis, Missouri - where we have lived ever since. Our children are married with kids of their own and we have everyone within a 20 minute car ride from our house which is wonderful.
Although American citizens we have dual nationality and keep up our British passports. We are home (England) at least once a year, usually twice, but since my parents died our visits to Seascale are less frequent. ( We will be there in October this year however, and my family home there is now a small hotel.)
My brother lives in Hampshire, just over an hour's drive from either Heathrow or Gatwick so whenever we holiday in Europe we break our journey and stay with him and his family.
Bob and I met up with Ann and her husband Robin Barnett a few years ago for a civilized lunch - I would frequently bump into Ann in Seascale as we each visited our elderly parents - and we keep in touch via email and at Christmas. Although I have not seen my fellow pupils from Millom who lived in Seascale for donkeys years, I would visit with their parents when home. Especially Mr. and Mrs. Nevison and Fred Kallis (all now gone) and have met up with others - Val Dorward - at Gosforth Show and such so I have not really disappeared completely.
I can't make the September reunion but please say "Hi" to all and sundry on my behalf. I have all my old school photos and the grandchildren like to "find Nana" amongst all those (to me) familiar faces. I did once write a letter to Mr. Rees and filled him in on my doings and thanked him for moulding me into who I am - he was a wonderful teacher. I had a very nice three page letter back from him which I thought was very kind. He died not long after that. If I can find a recent photo of my husband and myself I will send it on to you.
Thanks for trying to keep us all together.
Nikki Jansson (Dorothy Mossop)
