Sometimes out of the blue.......

.....the most unexpected happens. I had intended to post pictures of the twelve knitted squares for my Lizard Ridge Afghan, and the Noro I purchased to finish it, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I received an email from my Uncle Alex, who isn't really my uncle but my dad's cousin, which makes him my second cousin on my dad's side. He, my dad and my Uncle Tommy (another of dad's cousin), were the best of friends when they were lads. The email totally caught me off guard, Uncle Alex received a scanner for Christmas and is transfering some of his slides onto computer files. This is what he sent me. The lady in the blue cardigan is my great-grandmother Agnes Walker, the lady beside her is her daughter, my Auntie Chrissy, (Uncle Alex's mother), Uncle Alex is in the front holding his daughter.
I only have a few pictures of my great-grandmother so this is truly a wonderful gift. I am sure she took her glasses off for the second picture purely out of vanity. My grannie was very special to us, she and my Granpa Jake raised my dad, they were his surrogate parents, and because she had been a dancer my dad became a dancer and she paid for his lessons. By all accounts my father was a wonderful tap dancer and eventually became his dance teachers partner. She bought my sister and I party dresses to go to an Esso Christmas Party and took us to see Jack Milroy as Buttons in the panto Cinderella. She lived well into her 90's and never lost her sharp tounge (for she had one) or her sense of humor. These pictures have brought back a wealth of memories, on one of my trips back to Scotland she gave me her amber necklace, which I still have tucked away. When she was in her 90's and our son was a baby we took him to meet his great-great-grandmother, as she held him in her arms, tears came into her eyes, she looked at him and then she looked at me and said "I never thought I'd hold another baby". We all thought that she would live to be 100 and receive the letter from the Queen, but unfortunately she fell and broke her hip, this limited her mobility and she began to decline. She was a force to be reckoned with, she was little but she was mighty.
(the age of the pictures - at least 40 years)