Last year my husband and I went to a nearby town to photograph a church where his cousin had married, as we were doing a ‘then and now’ photo album for a anniversary present for them.
As I was sitting in the car outside the church, a thought suddenly came into my head – why not go to a nearby village to see if we could find my husband’s maternal grandfather’s grave?
We had looked years before but couldn’t find it. Bizarrely, when my husband opened the car door he said, “Why don’t we go to see if we can find Granddad’s grave?”
After searching around the churchyard, we actually managed to find the grave this time and were quite shocked to discover that he had died on that very same day many years previously. The thought sent shivers down my spine.
Pleased with our find, we then decided to locate the house where my husband’s paternal grandparents had lived, as it was only a few miles from the churchyard. We knew the name of the street but not the house number, and as we walked along it, I noticed a really strong smell of flowers as we passed one particular house, which was rather strange because there were no flowers in the garden. I joked to my husband that this must be the one.
We walked along further and then back again, and once again I smelt the strong smell outside this house. My husband couldn’t smell anything and said that it must be someone washing some clothes.
He then used my mobile phone to ring his cousin who knew the house number, and sure enough we were standing in front of the right one. My husband even took a photo of the house which, when we got home, we compared with an old one of his cousin’s, confirming that it was indeed the correct one. The front had been altered a bit, but certain marks on the roof and brickwork were the same.
Suffice it to say, we had a very successful trip that day, greatly assisted by my husband’s late grandparents.
Banana
© Banana 2008