Remembering

Today featured two events, a chance to celebrate the life of my great uncle John, who died last week, and in the evening a birthday celebration for a friend from church. It was lovely to see family that I hadn't seen in years, and to laugh at the old family stories. I remember Uncle John as a very clever, very kind man, who made me laugh. When I was around 10 or 11, my wee sister and I went up to the mainland from Arran to stay with the Morrisons, and one of our excursions was to the library at Glasgow university, which I loved, partly for the view and partly for the books. Him taking us there and me loving it so much says a lot about us both I think! I also remember lots of nice walks from that visit too. He was the kind of man who spent his life learning, getting several degrees, including one after he retired, according to my Gran at least a small part of which was to actually go to his own graduation, as he graduated the first time during the war and there was no ceremony, then from a distance learning course, when his kids were wee and money tight, so he couldn't go. But he was always reading, always studying and learning, and fascinated by the world around him, and the fact he left his body to medical research is no surprise.

Two of my great aunts were there, both Uncle John's wife Aunt Iso and Auntie Doda, two of the three Isobels in the family (in that generation, there is another in my generation, who was also there), my Gran having been the third. There was always a lot of family hilarity at the fact that my Grandpa and his brother, who had a wee sister Isobel, both married girls with the same name. My Gran was the only one who got the full title, and actually that was because she didn't admit to Isabella! Somehow without ever changing her name officially, her passport was in the name of Isabel, but when Mum and I went to register her death, it had to be done in the full name on her birth certificate. We could picture her spinning in her coffin at the very thought of it! It was great to catch up with folk, and I hope that as a good number of folk seem to be heading for Arran soon, at least Mum will be able to see them again without having the trauma of a funeral to bring it about!

A lovely evening too at a 50th birthday, again catching up with folk I hadn't seen in a while, though measured in weeks or months rather than years!