My father wrote down a lot about his childhood (and also recorded some memories on tape, which we still have).
Included in these were things about his parents, my grandparents.
I may have told this story before, but I recall reading in my father's book about how his mother, my grandmother, used to make the journey by bus each week from Leyton, North East London, where they lived, to Woolwich, across the River (or rather through the Blackwall Tunnel), where she cleaned for her own mother, my great grandmother.
My great grandmother lived with another daughter, but typically in families, they'd fallen out so my gran came and did the cleaning.
After my great grandmother died, she left my gran 12/6d in her will as a thank you for all the cleaning, and my father's book said that his mother had used this to buy an oak drop leaf side table, with twisted decorative legs - but unfortunately one of the legs twisted the wrong way.
And I looked up from where I was sitting reading this in my own sitting room and there was the very table, which I had carefully brought when I cleared my dad's house after his death.
And it's just occurred to me that this piece of furniture had been passed down to my dad from his mother when she had moved out of London during the Blitz - the gift of the furniture enabled my parents to afford to get married. My dad explained in the tape recording how his mother had been greatly disturbed by the bombs in London where they lived.
It all links up. I think my son is interested in it all - he certainly seems so
