Reaping occasional rewards? 25 2 12

When my maternal grandmother AA allowed me to dry my tears as she was about to thrust me through the doors of our local Methodist church Sunday School I don't suppose for one moment she reflected that rather than encourage me to become more religious it probably had the opposite effect: since most of the kids who attended were better heeled whilst we were at that time very poor during the time our mother A was fighting the UK Crown for a war widow's pension to raise her 3 young children, after losing her husband J who had the temerity not to die at the end of a bullet, or some such, whilst giving his life to his country in WW ll...and I didn't feel pre-disposed to join this Methodist gathering.

Later when my kid sister M deferred to me with the question was it okay to marry a Roman Catholic boy, W, I told her that had to be her own decision, never mind the fact that all three children of my parents' family had been christened in an Anglican Church.

And when subsequently on the occasion of the birth of her fourth child, T, she and her husband, W, decided on naming me as a Godfather and my wife, A-E, Godmother we of course were flattered, despite the fact that we didn't attend a church of our own...

We had been named godparents also to my wife's elder brother K-J’s second daughter, M, of three and we proceeded to treat M a little special as far as remembering her birthday, for example, more than the rest, and not that we were aware of it until he grew up, but we had also been named godparents to my wife's older sister P’s second son, at L’s christening during his Lutheran ceremony…

Imagine then the lovely surprise when our RC nephew T named his first son, E, after me, a courtesy accorded no-one else of my generation in the male line although we had given the first of our two sons my father, J’s, and my brother, J’s, given name as a second christian name and our second son the first christian name K, of his two uncles, K-J and K-W, on his mother’s side, also as a second name. My godson and his wife, C, then settled on my name E as their son’s given name and the name of a deceased older brother, R, of his wife for his second Christian name… a rare compliment indeed!

T had been born 12 years after his older sister L and at least 6 years after his two older brothers N and G and so had quite a different up-bringing as the baby of his generation and he more than any perhaps benefitted from the fact that I was available to take him hill-walking at a time in my career when it most conveniently fitted in with my social circumstances. When T and C settled in Vietnam for a few years A-E and I visited them for a 2 week holiday, thereby continuing to nurture our special relationship.

The fitting sequel then was a visit we have just enjoyed playing host to T, C and E for 8 days, the first visit for C to our country of residence though T is returning to a town we found him a job in when he was a teenager for a summer which also gave me the opportunity to introduce him to the life at sea in our small yacht, and baby E at 2 years and 1 month was happy to be based in just one place with its spacious garden and I was happy collecting them from the airport and giving them the loan of my car to take them to our elder son S’s home to continue their holiday with people of their own generation although S and S’s wife’s S’s children A and D are a good few years older than E they nevertheless will be guaranteed a good continuation to their summer holiday…

We don’t always get good things from what we sow in life but when we do have such good fortune it is not such a bad idea to crow about it once in a while to use one of AA’s more choice old English idioms…hahaha...as I hope you all get to crow about your good fortune once in a while?   

A blog about reaping what one sometimes sows... 15 7 13 (9hits)