Memories
My brother John is a hobby photographer, now he is older, and has been really inspired by the arrival of his grandkids. As part of the tribal stuff, he found my Dad's old home movies, beginning when we were small in America, and put them all on a DVD, made copies, and I of course got one of them.
How poignant it is. We were in the US from the end of 56 to 61, and lived in Buffalo NY. My Mum was in her late twenties and my Dad was 10 years older than she. Seeing them young, active and happy again, the way I remember them.... My dear Dad is dead, he died 16 years ago. He had a massive stroke, completely unexpected, which took him away. I was devastated at that, we had always been close and he was very much my model for what a man should be. He looked so young and happy, he was a lovely man.
He would have loved Grant. Grant adores me, thinks the sun shines out of me, and that was all my Dad wanted for me.
We came back to Britain as my Mum was going to nurse her dying father, he survived only a couple of months after we did return. My Dad looked around for casual work to keep us before we returned to the US, but he was offered a fantastic job, with fabulous wages, working for the Navy as an electrical design engineer (he was one of the people who designed the Polaris subs, check it out!). So, we never returned.
But, it was good to see those old films again. I saw Letchworth State Park again (ty for the pix, again, Mountain, as I said at the time, I saw the bridge and the footpath again, 50 years later).
I was lucky, I had a loving family and a good home, and today made me realise it all over again. It was also why I kept my Mum at home as long as I possibly could and tried my level best to do as she asked, she had always wanted to stay at home. My parents loved me and did their best for me. My Dad worked all hours he could to get us extra money, Mum sewed into the night to make us clothes.
Of course things got better in time as they both worked.
It was good to have such memories now immortalised. Thanks, John.
How poignant it is. We were in the US from the end of 56 to 61, and lived in Buffalo NY. My Mum was in her late twenties and my Dad was 10 years older than she. Seeing them young, active and happy again, the way I remember them.... My dear Dad is dead, he died 16 years ago. He had a massive stroke, completely unexpected, which took him away. I was devastated at that, we had always been close and he was very much my model for what a man should be. He looked so young and happy, he was a lovely man.
He would have loved Grant. Grant adores me, thinks the sun shines out of me, and that was all my Dad wanted for me.
We came back to Britain as my Mum was going to nurse her dying father, he survived only a couple of months after we did return. My Dad looked around for casual work to keep us before we returned to the US, but he was offered a fantastic job, with fabulous wages, working for the Navy as an electrical design engineer (he was one of the people who designed the Polaris subs, check it out!). So, we never returned.
But, it was good to see those old films again. I saw Letchworth State Park again (ty for the pix, again, Mountain, as I said at the time, I saw the bridge and the footpath again, 50 years later).
I was lucky, I had a loving family and a good home, and today made me realise it all over again. It was also why I kept my Mum at home as long as I possibly could and tried my level best to do as she asked, she had always wanted to stay at home. My parents loved me and did their best for me. My Dad worked all hours he could to get us extra money, Mum sewed into the night to make us clothes.
Of course things got better in time as they both worked.
It was good to have such memories now immortalised. Thanks, John.