Embracing the Changes

By Anne

We all make plans for the future… Sometimes life takes over and those plans change and we have to adapt. This happened to my family.

My parents, Bob and Edith, married in Nov. 1943. They had three children, myself followed by two sons. Dad worked away a lot so Mam was our constant parent. I remember a happy childhood.

I met my husband-to-be in my teens and we planned to marry in Sept 1966. Mam started a bottom drawer for me (remember those) and we began to arrange the wedding. 

Then everything changed literally overnight…Our mother died suddenly on 18^th Dec 1965. One brother had just started work and my other brother was studying towards University…Big changes were on the horizon…We postponed our wedding so that I could support my Dad and brothers… 2years later we married. It was a joyous occasion tinged only by the sadness of the absence of our mother. We moved into our own home after our honeymoon.

One tear later Dad met Joyce who was to become his second wife…. More changes were on the horizon…Dad asked if he could bring her to meet us so we guessed it must be serious. Would we like each other? Would she change the home our mother had made? We need not have worried. It was as if we had known each other for years and our two families hit it off straight away. Joyce wanted to know all about Mam. Dad was happy again. They married and Joyce moved into the family home. She suggested my brothers and I take anything special which reminded us of our mother…Being 15 years younger than dad she was like the big sister I never had and she took good care of my dad and brothers…She was loving, caring and supportive.

Eventually my brothers and I became parents. They became Grandy Bob and Grandma Joyce. They were very hands on and loved being Grandparents. When our children became old enough we told them about Grandma Edith. Dad said he was the luckiest man alive. He had had two very different wives whom he had loved very much.

So Friends… Whatever plans we make for the future, we should be prepared for life-changing events and embrace them. Thank you Mam, Dad and Joyce. We shall never forget you.