Ellen Page

Ellen Page was a lady on the cusp of old age who applied for the job of assistant at the Corner Shop when Maggie Clegg advertised the post in May 1972. She had been in the profession all of her life working with her husband in their own shop until his death. At that point, she sold the shop not wanting the responsibility and with her son in the army and daughter settled happily down south unable to help her. Ellen seemed the ideal candidate for the job but she was little too experienced for Maggie's tastes, upsetting her when she butted into a sale with Ray Langton to suggested alternative items and forcing her into agreeing to a half-day try-out. She then served Mrs Fletcher who told her she and her husband were going to Benidorm in less than three weeks and he had told her that if she didn't lose half a stone he would refuse to sit on the beach with her. She therefore wanted slimming bread and also asked for half a pound of Cheshire cheese. Ellen advised her to try cottage cheese instead. When Maggie interjected to say that she didn't stock this item, the two women looked askance at her and Ellen told her it would go like a bomb if she got some in.

She faced a real test when Ena Sharples came in and told her that she used to assist in the shop and could cut cheese to exactly four ounces if requested. She told Ellen to show her how good she was at that task and was put out when she succeeded admirably. By dinner time, Ellen told Maggie she would be back in three hours and told her to put her feet up with some milk and a lightly boiled egg as she looked peaky. Maggie confided in Elsie Howard that Ellen reminded her far too much of her sister Betty Turpin and she wouldn't be able to cope with someone who treated her as a ten-year old.

In the early afternoon, Norma Ford applied for the position and she was far more to Maggie's taste. When Ellen came back, Norma could see how things were and shocked Maggie by quickly posing as her niece with a trumped up story of having returned from Malaya after he husband "Donald" was killed by a felled rubber tree. Mrs Page was told that Norma would be taking the job. Ellen told her she quite understood and, with a box of biscuits from Maggie as a thank you and with a plan to visit her daughter for a "little holiday", she went on her way.