21.6.14 - Family history that explains a lot...

I was back in the UK last week for very sad reasons. My grandmother, Daphne Flanigan, had passed away at the age of 83; and I needed to go back for the funeral and to deliver the eulogy on behalf of my mum and aunts.

Tough stuff yes, and gruelling travel – but as discussed on here before, these are some of the things you have to accept when you move abroad.

I don’t actually want to linger on this. Suffice to say I am pleased I went; she was a wonderful old lady and, 

poring over her life for a few days, it was a privilege to pay tribute to her.

What I do want to share, is that I discovered some amazing things in the house she lived in since 1975 that explain a great deal of where I get the urge to blog, photograph and document from.

My grandfather, George, passed away in 1999. A fantastic storyteller and military enthusiast, I was his biggest fan as a little boy and teenager. But it turns out, he did more than tell stories to me. He had a miniature typewriter – still in the cupboard with lots of spare paper, ribbons and carbon sheets, waiting to be 

used – and wasn’t afraid to use it. Here are some fabulous things I found:

1-      Diaries for every year from 1964 – A typical entry being “Up, wash and shower. Breakfast. Work. Terrible weather. Home. Beer. Scrabble. Bed”.

2-      Sheaves of short stories about his life, some of which he’d had published – his upbringing as the child of an RAF engineer; his service in the navy; his service as part of the Queen’s honour guard at the coronation; his time as a prison officer; a dreadful tale about a murder in a pub that he tried to prevent (and failed) at great personal risk.

3-      Draw upon drawer of photos – including literally hundreds in black and white from his service in the navy.

4-      A huge folder of his correspondence from 1980s on – He kept a carbon copy of every letter he ever  sent [who does this and why?!], ranging from writing to television presenters he disagreed with on historical minutiae, the Daily Mail editor (many times) and his friends about his family. 7-year-old me is recorded as “a card” in front of whom he cannot swear or I repeat it immediately.

5-      Lists and records that had

a.       Multiple sub headings

b.      Little to no discernible purpose

c.       An unbelievable level of detail.

My favourite being a book of all the social engagements he and my grandmother went to between 1968 and 1998…so now I can pointlessly tell you that they went to the pub or the British legion 990 times in this period, apart from in 1985 when, recorded in block capital red letters, they inexplicably did NO PUBBING.

Clearly, this explains a great deal. Keptman is genetic. 

I should probably write a letter about it to someone. Then keep a copy of said letter. And store it with all my other letters. Then write a story about it.

But there was one last discovery that really blew me away…which deserves a whole extra blog of its own. Watch this space.