WHAT MY MOTHER GOT UP TO. By Bryn Fortey

when I took my mother to see Louis Armstrong

at London’s Empress Hall in 1956

it was sufficiently a sell-out

that i couldn’t book two seats together

so we sat on opposite sides 

and she had the best of the deal

while i sat and enjoyed the gig of a lifetime

my mother shook hands with Louis

and sat next to Velma Middleton

while the vocalist waited for her cue

to mount the revolving stage

the whole concert was performed on

Velma first signed up with Louis in 1942

when she was 25

initially with his big band

staying with the reduced All Stars format

totting up 18 years with him

until she suffered a stroke

during their 1961 African tour

and died in Sierra Leone

at the Empress Hall she told my mother

what a joy all her years with the band had been

that Louis was just the same off stage as on

that the All Stars were like family

and we remembered her words

when we heard about her death

Bryn Fortey is a veteran writer from Wales. He has had two

collections published by The Alchemy Press: MERRY-GO-

ROUND (2014) and COMPROMISING THE TRUTH (2018),

both featuring short stories and poems. He has been well

published over the years, both in print and on the internet.