Memories

We needed to stop in Keswick to pick up a Christmas present for MrsMackem. Mum and I had been away a couple of nights staying with her sister, and treated me to scone with Cumbrian rum butter, downstairs was where she queued up during the war for bread....memories.
Yesterday evening there was a gathering of aunts and uncles and cousins, catching up, telling stories, remembering.
We started talking about my grandad and when his sight was going, we all told stories about that that others hadn’t heard before.
I told the story that after a few months of truanting from school on a Friday afternoon to play bowls, I told him(not the truanting bit), so we had a game, he gave me a trouncing, and was registered blind two weeks later.
My cousin remembers him driving and her being asked by him if the traffic light was green or red.. My aunt remembers driving again and him asking her to tell him when to turn left or right because he couldn’t see. My uncle remembers him driving again!!(we really should have had this conversation 40 years ago) anxiously with a loud voice saying “Dad it’s a one way street” to which he replied “I’m going one way!!”. He never had an accident (saw a few), which nana attributed to her direct line to him upstairs. We remembered someone who left us 35years ago, but still remained with us both as individuals and was clearly part of what bound us together as families.