Never to hear Sgt Pepper play...

2016 was a tad challenging for all sorts of reasons and not least the number of icons who passed into mystery. Someone with a certain irony produced an image of the eponymous album, with all the 2016 dead replacing the original characters. If you haven't seen it I've added an image to the extras - There were a few versions as we approached New Year and I think this is the final one with George and Carrie (though maybe not Debbie)...

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of my father's death, and it occurs to me in the way such things do that he never got to hear the album, which was released that summer. I can't imagine not having that in my experience, along with many other similar cultural paraphernalia. I can imagine not having a father though, and so for me fifty years on is a bit weird. He died aged 32, and I don't have many memories of him.

By some strange quirk of Fate it is also the anniversary of the death of my niece, Hannah, who died in a car accident aged 18 just four years ago. This is not a great day in our family calendar, and yet it's just a date not a promise of everlasting torment. My heart still breaks for my brother's loss and for the love all her friends still devote to her Facebook page.

Anyhow, finally home again and likely to sleep through most of the day I thought I'd upload this new version of my father's smile before I hit the sheets. We are all ancestors, eventually. The result of thousands and thousands of moments in love. They shaped us and we shape the next generation, albeit each probably less than we think. Hail ancestors!