DEVOTED SISTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23707, 14 January 1939, Page 19

DEVOTED SISTER

SHE SEES FOR TWO HELPING BUND BROTHER SACKS OF COAL CARRIED This is the story of a brother and a sister who are inseparable in business and home life, inseparable because the former is blind and needs his sister, as guide and comforter. Twenty-five years ago, at the age of 17, Bert Pickbourne, of Nottingham. lost his sight as the result of a speck of coaldust entering one of his eyes. Directly the extent of the calamity became evident, Pickbourne’s sister Hilda, six years his junior, made a vow that she would never leave her brother. MARRIAGE OFFERS In the intervening years she has turned a deaf ear to more than one offer of marriage. His infirmity notwithstanding, Bert Pickbourne has contrived for a long time now to carry on for his father a coal delivery business, and his horse and wagon can be seen almost every day in the Carlton Hill and Thorneywood districts of Nottingham. His sister is always at his side hauling with seeming ease a hundredweight of coal on her strong shoulders. She leads the way to the customer’s door, and Bert, similarly laden, follows behind, one hand gripping his own sack, the other lightly touching the sack carried by Hilda. “ I shall never leave Bert, Miss Pickbourne told a News of the World reporter. “We have developed a remarkable sense of touch and a deep understanding, and he would be completely lost without me. “NOT INTERESTED” “ I just had to gel into the business to keep it going, for dad has a full-time job down at the station depot, and Bert obviously could not go round with a dray alone. “ When I started I could not lift a half-hundredweight of coal, but now I handle 40 one hundredweight bags every day. “As you probably know. 1 have had some offers of marriage, and refused them all. and also the offer of another job. “ I am not interested in any man except Bert.”