Flashback Friday… on a Monday!

With Christmas fast approaching, I’ve started to think about the people who are no longer with us but who live on in our hearts.

This is my wonderful Granddad at my aunt’s wedding. He died when Aiden was a baby and my heart still aches when I think about him. He was a kind and gentle man and I was lucky to have him while I was growing up. He married my Nan-nan after her first husband died, leaving her to raise six children alone, including the youngest, twin girls. He treated my mum and her siblings as his own and everyone in the family adored him.

I attribute my love of reading to him.
I remember being in infant’s school, just learning to read and I’d take my book to my Nan-nan’s when we’d visit at the weekend. My Granddad would listen to me read and would never fail to praise me and make me feel like I was the cleverest girl in my class.
I would make extra effort to learn more and more words during the week so I could show Granddad at the weekend. I started to love reading and it was further encouraged by my lovely godparents (I think my godfather is my Granddad’s son and his wife is my godmother) who would buy me a book for Christmas and birthdays. They always picked books that would feel magical to me and I wish I still had them.

Granddad played the organ and I used to love sitting and listening to him play; sometimes he’d sing along to the hymns he’d play and he had a lovely voice.

I miss my Granddad so much and wish my children could have known him.