Saturday, August 19, 2006

50-year Wedding Anniversary

This weekend marks the fiftieth wedding anniversary of my parents. Yesterday evening I drove to my parents' home in Brooklands Village, Mosgiel, with Mami and my two youngest children, Vincent and Iacinta. My oldest, Albany, could not come because she was working.

When I walked in the door I was flabbergasted. I had expected to see only my sister, Kristina, and brother Michael with his family. However, there were many more. Ron was there, my favorite cousin, and he had brought Dad's sister, my aunt, all the way from Wellington.

And there was my other sister - we are four siblings in total - from Australia! And then in the corner were Harold and his father Tjef who, although not family, are as close as you can get. Our families have known one another since we first came to Dunedin over 45 years ago.

My goodness, what a surprise! I tend not to socialize all that much, and I hadn't seen my brother for months, even though he lives in the same city. It was great to catch up with everyone. I suddenly realised how important it is to have family and connections.

I decided to set up a blog for my parents. A few years ago my father had typed out his and his wife's life story on the computer which he'd had to buy specially. It was a tiring and frustrating time for him, having to learn how to wordprocess, but he persisted.

A few copies were printed out, but I felt that their stories should have a wider audience. Imagine living at a time when you would only count ten or twenty cars in an hour on the main road between two European cities. My father's family boasted of having the first radio on the street!

Please keep and eye on the blog http://gjandhlucas.blogspot.com/ as I edit and update it with photographs.

May we all enjoy long and interesting lives.

1 comment:

Leigh Blackall said...

an amazing read! I'm still getting through it, but was amazed by the WW2 experiences.