On this day ..

Ten years ago, on the 15th April, we were celebrating my mother’s 90th birthday. The blip is of my brother and myself (on the right) with her.

Last year we marked her 99th – on the day Notre Dame went up in flames. Less than 3 months later she passed away of “extreme old age”.

Today we had planned to meet up as families to mark what would have been her 100th. Instead we had a virtual gathering. At this time last year Mum showed every sign of making it to her 100th. But as we know all to cruelly these days, future plans do not work out.

On this day in 1912, the Titanic sank.

On this day in 1862, when my grandfather was 3 years old, a relative of his future wife (my grandmother) set sail from London for Madagascar. He was John Duffus from Dundee. After a brief stint there as a whaler he joined the London Missionary Society, was refused permission to marry a local woman, so resigned and became a translator. Ended up being part of the support team for the emissary from Madagascar in negotiations between Napoleon III and Queen Victoria (whom he met). He then went to the USA, fought for the Union, and died in New York in 1912, shortly before the Titanic sank.

So, quite a day.