A RELATIVE of Cilla Black living in the Borders has fondly recalled how the chart-topping superstar took time out from her schedule to visit her family at their home in a Glasgow housing estate.

The signing sensation was appearing at the Glasgow Empire Theatre in 1968 when she decided to pop into the home of her cousin Jimmy Cullen in Drumchapel’s Abbotshall Avenue.

Cilla’s every move in the city was covered by photographers and pictures of her visiting her relatives living in Scotland appeared the following day in the newspapers.

Jimmy’s daughter Terry Mowson, who now lives in Chirnside, still proudly displays the framed photo of Cilla’s visit and spoken at the sadness of her second cousin’s passing.

Terry, 68 - former wife of renowned Scots painter Peter Howson - recalled: “She was headline in the show and there was a lot of hype.

“The newspapers wanted to take photographs of her time in the city that afternoon but Cilla said she was going out to see one of her cousins.

“My dad Jim and her were very close. She called him her big cousin and there was no way she was going to be up in Glasgow without seeing him and the family.

“Cilla was big news and the photographers were covering her movements so she phoned up my dad and asked if it was okay if they came along. He didn’t mind so our flat got invaded for the afternoon.

“I remember pictures being taken on the couch, at the table with my dad serving Cilla a cup of tea and even on our flat balcony.

“I was 14 or 15 at the time and here was a famous person sitting in your house that everyone was talking about.

“But I had known her since I was two and she was just so easy going but she dealt with all the fuss quite well.

“My dad was a Liverpudlian and his mother was Elizabeth White who was Cilla’s dad’s sister so that was the family connection. We were the Cullens and she was from the Whites but the families were very close.

“It was weird how Cilla was so like my sister Carol. Carol used to joke that she was going to get her nose done like Cilla - if she had they would have been identical.

“But despite her fame and busy schedule she was very good at keeping the connections up with the family.

“The person you saw on the telly was the person she was.

“She was quite savvy and clever but she never forgot her roots.

“I remember later being told a story of how she went to look at a house in Buckinghamshire and said she thought it was nice and she would take it only for the estate agent to say that was only the gatehouse of the property.

“The family all got tickets for her concerts at The Empire and it made you very proud hearing one of the family perform like that.

“I saw her perform quite a few times, it was very exciting in those days of the 60s. I used to see Alfie which I loved. “Cilla was always around when I visited my grandmother’s home in Liverpool. For school holidays most Glasgow people headed to Saltcoats but for us it was Liverpool.

“I always remember her being fabulously dressed and just had that sparkle.” But the Scottish connection soon diminished with the premature death of Terry’s mum Margaret, aged just 45.

Terry recalled: “My dad and sisters moved back to Liverpool soon after that and I was the only one who stayed in Scotland.

“As a result I lost touch and I didn’t have any contact with Cilla after that but of course I’ve always followed her career as she developed into a television host and basically a British institution, everyone seemed to love her.

“My dad died four years ago and while she couldn’t make the funeral for some reason she sent a bouquet.

“It was a close-knit family and still is.” Mum-of-three Terry stayed in Glasgow where she married Peter - the creator of so many world famous paintings - and lived in France for a decade.

But she returned to Scotland and now works as a furniture restorer and making lampshades at a studio in her home village of Chirnside.

She said: “It is beautiful down here. I liked growing up in Glasgow and the trips to Liverpool but I am settled here in the Borders.

“I used to love having someone as famous as Cilla in the family. It makes you realise that because people are well known a lot of doors open.

“It was the same with my ex-husband as through him all sorts of doors open.

“But because of Cilla and the fame she enjoyed and the people you met through her, I learned not to be nervous about meeting people.

Terry’s thoughts are with the family at this sad time but she won’t be attending the funeral.

She said: “It must be about 50 years since I had any contact with Cilla. It was quite a shock when I heard the news and I also got a phone call from Liverpool. Cilla was not that old at 72. But then again I am used to dealing with death at an early age with my mother at 45, my sister at 60 and a niece at 32. There is history of it in the family which is obviously very sad.” After her death last week, Cilla’s family have been given permission to return her body to the UK following a second post-mortem.

It was confirmed that she died of a stroke following a fall at her Spanish home.

The singer was sunbathing on a terrace at her villa in Estepona when she lost her balance and fell, hitting her head.