A long story !

I have been doing some family history research with my cousins , whom I had rarely seen other than at weddings or funerals, until we decided to have a video call together .
The long story ? Well we had an Uncle , the eldest brother in my father's family, and he disappeared. There were , of course , some years before he disappeared , but there was an estrangement, much sadness, a difficult personal life and no contact for about 30 years.
It seems that families are full of myths - the heroes and the black sheep. Our Uncle was the black sheep. I didn't ever know him , although he returned after a diagnosis of cancer and visited us all once before he died.
The story represented in this photo is this; my Uncle was called after Lord Welby, and when my cousin was doing some research around this fact she discovered our Uncle's war medals for sale on an auction site . We decided to buy them back - it felt redemptive and somehow fitting that we gathered together with his medals raise a glass to him - Reginald Welby MacLean . It's a much longer story than that- but this is enough today dear blippers!