Roots

Mono Monday hosted by Mrs Linda this week on the theme of "Ancestors" is the perfect excuse for me to use one of my all time favourite family photos.  Meet my great grandparents on their wedding day in 1900 in Rhayder, Mid Wales.  My Mother's paternal grandparents, Evan and Harriet Hope, known later in the family as Bap and Nana. The Welsh mountain rocks in the background were a backdrop to so very much of my childhood as I was always encouraged to embrace the Welsh in me.  I never knew Bap, but I did meet Nana when I was very young - I remember her frail and fragile in a wicker bath chair in the gardens of the old folks home where she ended her days, somewhere in Powys.  Nana and Bap's only son, my maternal Grandfather, can be seen here  in 1922, with his lovely young wife, my Gran, at the wedding of one of her siblings.  My Mum's parents moved to London (along with many of the family - others emigrated to Canada although some stayed and I still have second cousins in both Merthyr and Rhayder areas) in or around 1929, where my Grandad became the chief electrician at White City Stadium - originally built for the 1908 olympics and sadly demolished in 1985 - but this was a long time in the future from this young bridal couple.  

I am blessed to have a very fine collection of old photos of my Mum's family in Wales and then London - as a youngster I loved my Gran's photo albums so very much that she gave them to me, her entire collection, shortly before we lost her in 1981.   I sometimes wonder who I will give them to.