merry meet all.


i have spent today recovering, unfortunately my m.e is just giving me a small reminder that it is still here and to have too much fun at my peril! my flu efectively masked the m.e for a week...now the flu has all but gone my m.e steps back in...my life does feel so catch 22!

i have had to pull my socks up and get back into my studies...a struggle but i stuck with it today and tomorrow i fully expect to finish the main reading of this module and can dedicate plenty to my next assaignment.

Leanne, thank you so much for your kind comment on Johney, it really brought a tear to my eye.
i have not seen this picture for many years, my nan had given me the original and i had it displayed in my bedroom but when my dad left, so did the picture.

all i remembered was a figure in uniform.

now, to have the picture here, visible every time i walk into the room, i am reminded that i am part of him and his family, he is no longer some distant relative with no significance to me.
to have found out what i have from a small piece of information, requested and then forgot, has given me some of my ancestors and given me the chance to find out more and travel further back in time.
its helping me to fill in gaps. i used to look at the picture many years ago and wonder who he was...of course i knew he was my great grandad and he died in the war...
but i had other questions...where did he come from? what did he sound like? did he have brothers and sisters? who were his parents?
well now i can answer some of these questions, of course he would have a welsh accent, and that makes make me smile, it brings him more alive; he had nine other brothers and sisters; catherine and patrick joseph died as babies; thomas robert, was a miner by the age of 17; his father james was irish who was a stoker in gas works in swansea in 1901...

now i have new questions, what was he doing before the war? did he follow his brother down the mines? how did he end up in portsmouth where he enlisted? these are thngs i will hopefully be able to find answers too given time.

of course i have questions that will never be answered, he would have been 25 when the photo was taken, i wonder what he was thinking as the picture was taken? what were his feelings living in the trenches? was he scared? was he alone when he died?

those are the ones that will remain unanswered and that makes me sad, but of course as you know he was with me this samhain and although his strong presence has withdrawn for now, i can still feel part of him with me.