We have a big collection of framed photographs, all black and white, of our children and family, but this one tells a different story. This person here is me and these are friends of mine from art school. It was taken in 1969 outside the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square – I was a student and we were protesting the war in Vietnam.
I’d come to London to take six months off my sophomore year of college and my parents said that if I wanted to stay I had to go to school. I went to see Tom Eckersley, who ran the London College of Printing, and became a student there. They were heady days. One of the reasons it’s a treasured object for me is that it shows where I was at age 18. Coming to London, there was a kind of optimism and the idea that we could change the world if we all linked arms together in a peaceful protest.
I would always want to keep this photograph because it conveys what’s happened in my life from this moment in time to meeting Richard [Ruth’s husband], moving to Paris, doing the Pompidou Centre [the Paris gallery that architect Richard designed], coming back, having children and starting the River Cafe in 1987. Now this is all almost 55 years ago.
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Activism is not just about going on a march, it’s having values where you try to be fair and take care of the people who work for you. Activism for me is cooking, making sure the ingredients are good, and served in a beautiful place. It can be taking care of someone or taking care of yourself. My husband died a year ago and the way I’m going through my grief is to keep active. rivercafe.co.uk
