A Family Story: The Photo Gallery

* 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.

26 thoughts on “A Family Story: The Photo Gallery”

  1. 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

    Reply
  2. 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!?!

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  3. 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. 🙁

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  4. 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

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  5. 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.

    Reply
  6. 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

    Reply

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