50 Years Ago Today....

... my mom and dad promised to love and to cherish each other, until death did them part.

Sadly, my dad did not live to see today - we would have been having a good old shindig if he had! Not that either of my parents were Party People, really... they had a quiet, fairly conservative wedding - a church service in the then Salisbury (now Harare) Catholic Cathedral, followed by a reception at The Park Lane Hotel.

I was always really impressed by my dad's honeymoon planning.... back in the early 1960s, when travelling abroad was relatively unheard of, he whipped my mom away on a cruise from Mozambique to The Seychelles.

They were only the second group of tourists to visit the islands.... there were no luxury resorts, no hot water or air conditioning. But I reckon they had a magical time...

My Family And Other Animals

Whilst going through some of my dad's things recently, I came across some vintage photographs of several family members, including my grandparents. I find them fascinating as they are of a generation that has now passed. Yet they remain forever captured in these photographs, these people who are a large part of my ancestry....

My paternal grandmother, Mary Eileen (left) and her sister,
circa 1919. I didn't inherit her blonde, curly hair but apparently I have her thumbs...I'll never really know as she died from cancer aged 56 before I was born.

My maternal grandmother, Anna Dorothy, circa 1922. She looks so sweet and innocent here, but my gran had a wicked side...she once told me that as a little girl she would stick pins through the end of her shoes and kick a little boy she hated (he the adopted son of her favourite aunt).

Anna and her father (my great-grandfather), circa 1929. He passed away when my gran was only 14, and, as the eldest child, she had to leave school and start work to help support a large family.

Two Likely Lads... my maternal grandfather, Cornelius (left) and one of his brothers. Both joined the South African Army at the outbreak of WWII. My grandfather (an engineer) never left the shores of South Africa but my great-uncle was sent to Egypt, where he claimed to have single-handedly defeated Rommel's Afrika Korps.

Another photo of my grandfather, with my mom as a little girl, circa 1942. My grandfather was quite a character... always the joker, and sadly a bit of an alcoholic. He lost his leg in a hunting accident when I was very small, and never really recovered. He died when I was 9 years old, and my gran came to live with us until she passed away in 1999, aged 80.

I don't have any early photos of my paternal grandfather, George (right) - this one is taken with my dad (left) on my brother's Christening Day, 1970. I only saw my grandfather a handful of times, as by the time I was born, he had emigrated to Australia and remarried. He lived there until his death aged 92 in 2003.

Both sets of grandparents on my brother's Christening Day, 1970

Do you know much about your grandparents or even your great grandparents?