* I am linking up this photo to the Gallery at Sticky Fingers again today (10.9.12) because when the theme Yellow was announced, this was the photo that sprung to mind. GG and Bug’s grandad, never one to let fashion sense get in the way of an angle, in his full-on outfit for his and my Mum’s Golden Wedding anniversary. My Mum is in hospital 120 miles away this week, so I hope that seeing this again will cheer her up…
This happened before I was born. My Grandma and Grandad’s Golden wedding anniversary. I knew my Grandad, but my memories of him are few. He died when I was 4. In this picture he had already been “living with cancer” for 5 years. He carried on living with it for another 5.
By all accounts I would have loved this event. My Grandad was pretty healthy really, for a man with cancer. Not that he saw it that way. Any chance for a grumble and an ominous-sounding ‘this’ll be my last Christmas’ and he was after it like a fox on rabbit duty! But you wouldn’t know it to look at him here, would you? In his element, the longed-for marquee in his retirement garden (Mummy wouldn’t go for it for her wedding venue!), all his friends, and his yellow (golden) outfit!
We remember him now for his fondness for showering us with sweets and inappropriate cake, and we send him a chocolate on a helium balloon every year on his birthday. But this photo stands in our living room, and Mummy remembers him differently – happy, a superb host, full of it! He is part of our family story in so many different ways.
This post is written for The Photo Gallery at Sticky Fingers.
What a great picture! Their faces full of life and love. Now that’s beautiful.
That’s a great picture. They both look so happy. I read the story of the chocolate on the birthday balloon too. What a lovely idea. I think that story will stay with me all day today. x
Aw thanks! That was a lovely, if emotional day 🙂
He does look happy and full of life, and your Grandma too! Great story.
I love to see photos that capture such happiness 🙂
Awwww, what a lovely photo. And story to accompany it.
And I love that he gets a chocolate and a balloon every year on his birthday, what a lovely tribute. X
What a lovely photo memory. I love the balloon/chocolate tribute!
He has a look of a man who enjoyed life & made the most of it.
What a fabulous idea to send a chocolate on a helium balloon. Might steal that, if you don’t mind, as we lost my father-in-law last year, and a fabulous Grandad to my boys.
Your Grandad looks a very happy and jolly guy. And who doesn’t love inappropriate cake!?!
Beautiful post and picture. Thanks you for sharing it.
Great photo! He sounds like he would have been a person worth knowing.
That is such a happy photo. I never met my grandad on my mum’s side either. He passed away when I was just a baby and we were living in Cali at the time. 🙁
This is such a happy picture. Memories that involve my grandparents are some of the best ones I have. x
Wow, Golden wedding anniversary and you can see the look of love and happiness in their faces, as if it was their first dance. Very sweet!
Ah he look like a great guy and its great what you do on his birthday
He looks like he had a fabulous day and undoubtably there would have been inappropriate cake 🙂
I love his golden outfit and wow what a smile. I think the helium balloon idea is just lovely and I am sure he appreciates it. This is a man that looks like he has a lot of stories he could tell. x
Oh and he did! He monopolised one of my bridesmaids for my entire wedding, plying her with port and cigars!
Yes, I only wish I had been less embarrassed by relationships with parents and asked him to tell me more of them!
Is there any other kind of cake than ‘inappropriate’?!!!
Or was it shaped like a male phallus or something? *misses point by a country mile*
I just love stories about past family members that we want to remember.
No he was a very gentlemanly fellow. Inappropriate from him meant lot of sugar and food colouring – the kind of stuff only Grandparents can get away with!
What lovely memories that a photo can evoke. I have a lot of ‘This’ll be my last Christmas’ from my darling nan who’ll be 93 this year and is as fit as a fiddle
Looks as though it was taken yesterday. I’m not a fan of yellow outside the garden border but that’s almost converted me.
This lovely picture will most definitely cheer your mum up. They both look so happy!
Lovely photo! It captures a great moment. And your Grandma looks uncannily like my Auntie Isobel 🙂
Ooh that’s just spooky!