I actually laughed out loud at the "dont touch the veg madam" quote of Gregg's and was thoroughly engrossed by his family story. The amount of tragedy in the lives of his ancestors actually quite humbled me. I have been struggling with depression on and off for years but had to count my blessings when hearing the poor grandfathers story. There has been a fair amount of family deaths in my short life, one an accidental death from fire which made the program very sad for me (I'm a similar age to Gregg) and it can knock you for six. What I find most interesting about researching family history is the patterns that seem to continue from generation to generation. I come from a long line of single mothers, all having children at 25, some have tried to buck the trend by marrying but always ends up the same. My father lost his father very young and i lost mine reasonably young, my daughter doesn't know her father much. As I go back I see difficult relationships between mother and daughters, and abandoment, usually with children living with older relatives. My daughters line is almost untraceable as her father was adopted and my mother was a "war baby" so that line should be pretty hard to verify relying on family legend so to speak. I wonder if these repeating patterns are natures way of passing on the fortitude that comes from bearing these anomilies and familial coping strategies in such circumstances.
