Family

After breakfast my sister and I spent the morning visiting the Burghead Visitor Centre, watched the cormorants preening themselves on the rocks, and had a general wander and potter around the village.  Then we went back to the caravan, where Mum had remained with Millie the Westie, and made some sandwiches and coffee for lunch.

We had arranged to meet up with cousin Alan in Buckie at around 2pm, but got a wee bit lost on the way, so turned up at 3pm.  My cousin is only 2 years younger than Mum, as she was 17 years younger than my Dad.  When Dad got home from the war, after being a Japanese PoW, he weighed just 5 and a 1/2 stone, and was suffering from malaria and beri-beri. 

All of his personal possessions were lost during the war years, and he arrived in the north east of Scotland to live with his sister Nan, mother of Alan and his many siblings.  Auntie Nan was a lovely wee woman, about 5 foot tall, with a permanent smile on her face.  Despite having a troup of children mostly in their teens at the time, she took her wee brother in and fed him up and restored him to good health. 

This picture shows him about a year after his return, aged 34.  We had never seen it before (in fact, I have never previously seen a picture of Dad with a full head of hair), the only copy of it having passed into Alan's keeping on the death of Auntie Nan several years ago.  It's precious to him too, as my Dad was his beloved Uncle Charlie, who lived with them for several years when he himself was a young man. 

Seeing this picture of Dad, so much younger then than any of his children are now, made the three of us cry a little.  Also, I see my nephew Kyle (Marion's son) so like his Grandad - more so than my brothers are.  Aren't genes funny things? 

Leaving Alan and his wife Isobel, we made our way from their home in Buckie to Lossiemouth, to see his sister Violet, our beloved 'Auntie Vi' when we were kids.  Again, she is our first and full cousin, but is the same age as Mum - 87.  When we were young, she and her late husband Jim went to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe now), where she was a teacher, and where they lived for 50 years. 

Sadly, since Mugabe took power, their lives became fraught with fear and difficulty, and they eventually left and came home to Scotland, with only what they could pack in their car as they fled.  Not long after they returned, Jim died, and Vi became stone deaf. She has a million wonderful tales of living in Africa to tell, but it is difficult to speak with her due to the hearing loss. 

We were too late to head to Burghead for tea, so bought fish and chips, and ate them in the car looking out at the beach at Lossiemouth.  Millie shared mine.