Gran

It can be somewhat difficult to date photos  but after lots of thought, I am pretty sure that this was taken around Easter 1974.

From left to right

Dad, Mum, Aunt Stina (from Germany with back of head), my girlfriend Annie, My Gran Adele from Germany and the girls far right was ... me.

Taken at my parents home in Old Buckenham, Norfolk, I'm sure by my Uncle George, husband of his Swedish wife, Stina. The hints that place the date are that I have photos of Stina and George outside that suggest it was spring, my mother's clothes would support that. The fire is on, there are no Christmas type decorations. I still had relatively long hair which almost certainly indicates I was still at college and hadn't yet started the summer term on-the-job practical Hotel Management placement at the St. George's Hotel in London that was part of the course.

Gran. Adele would have been driven over by George and Stina from Heidelberg and dumped with us for a week while they did a car tour of the UK. It was great with Gran - she loved being in England, talked non-stop with anybody she could although she didn't speak a word of English. She devoured Dad's Army on TV, you couldn't pull her away. She had done a few such visits in the early/mid 70s. She had first been in England in 1953 to be a witness at the marriage of my Mum and Dad at Great Yarmouth, a somewhat hurried event.

My father on leave from Trinidad for around 8 weeks (they took leave to UK every 2-3 years, saving it up to make the long ship journey worthwhile). My Mum was working, since 1952, at his sister's house in Norfolk as an Au pair earning money to pay for brother George's medical doctor study at Heidelberg University. They met, fell in love and married in those few weeks, quite a feat given mixed religion and foreigner marriage. In the extra photo, Adele with my also widowed English grandmother Isabella and Mum on a windswept porch of my Dad's sister's house at Ormesby, Norfolk and a wedding day photo, with my younger 1939 born Uncle Jochen, far left.