When I came from Malaysia, I first lived in Lancashire for training but there was just nothing there, it was all industrial. I never saw the sun! Later, I worked at Hackney Hospital as a staff midwife. But I got married at 40 years old, and gave up my job to run a grocery shop for 30 years in Stockwell. It’s behind the station, still there. I wanted to buy the house behind but the Council wouldn’t sell it to me. I sold the shop in 1999 and I was so sorry to sell it. But when I had the shop I never had a garden. Now I’m 14 years in Clapham Park, I have a garden and nice neighbours. I came today to do the Tai Chi and now I’ll stay for the lunch. It’s just these past few years I’ve been held back. Because I’m 90, you know.
– Josephine has been living in Clapham Park for over 14 years
— Photographed by Marcia Chandra at the Over 50s Xmas Lunch, Clapham Park Community Resource Centre, December 2018
CLAPHAM PARK CREATIVE CO-OP 