Sepia Saturday tribute

For several years I have been delighting in the writings of Alan Burnett, another Yorkshire blogger, whose primary blog is 'News from Nowhere'.  I know I'm not the only one who thoroughly enjoys the eclectic, thought-provoking and amusing fare on offer there.  He also hosts 'Sepia Saturday' together with Kat Mortenson ('Poetikat's Invisible Keepsakes') - which provides an opportunity for bloggers to share their history through photographs.  I've much enjoyed reading the offerings but have never joined in.  Actually I don't have that many old photos and need to wait for retirement (ha!) to find time to scan those I do have.  However, as this weekend is the 100th Sepia Saturday and therefore something of a milestone worth celebrating, I have dug deep ....

Since grandparenting is ever on my mind these days, I am sharing this photo.  Dated February 1953, it was taken at the wedding of my maternal grandfather. (His smart three-piece suit and her real fur coat perhaps demonstrate that this was a very special occasion.)  Grandad's first wife, my mother's mother, sadly died in her early 50s, before I was born.  Some time later he married again, to his first wife's sister, my great aunt Alice.  The child in the photo is.... me!  (At just eight months old I was probably as chubby as I've ever been!)  So Grandad and Aunt Alice were my much-loved grandparents.  I have to say that Aunt Alice loved me as much, I am sure, as my 'real' grandmother would have done.  I remember happy times spent with them, pottering around their little terraced house or playing outside in their back garden.  Grandad had been a miner and suffered terribly from asthma and emphysema, so he couldn't run around much but nevertheless they found ways of amusing me as a child.  Aunt Alice had a pretty musical box, like a Swiss chalet, that played 'La Vie en Rose' when the roof was lifted - such a delight to be allowed to play with it.  I have so many good memories (of both sets of grandparents in fact) and count myself very blessed to have had the security of their love and attention.  Grandparent-grandchild is a special relationship.  I only hope I can be the same source of blessing to my new granddaughter, as I'm sure she will be to me.