Good day Family!
Coming up following this is a guest post by Hendrika Haasen. Some of you may remember Hendrika from her comments on the blog, and the poem she wrote about Malcolm...
A huge thank you to
Hendrika for her friendship and generosity, and for her interest in our family - an interest which has been a real gift to me. That interest has sparked
a redirection of my own view, away from what has come to seem to me as a
dissolution of our Vincentian heritage, towards new adventures in the family
saga. The Vincentian base is thriving in new ways – Rachael
(Catherine) returned from ‘foreign’ after decades in exile to create her own
paradise on the homestead of her childhood, and her charming Airbnb provided a
base at Queensbury for Hendrika and Randy to experience Vincy first hand.
My youth, when Daddy and his brothers and all their children called the Valley home, always seemed to me blessed and, dare I say, magical? With Granny as an anchor, the family met every day. No doubt there were adult stresses – financial, marital, personality differences – but the connections were always solid and in play. The family fortunes and adventures had fluctuated wildly over the centuries, but there was always a sense that we were people with a core that endured. A core and culture of decency, respect, humility, gratitude and kindness, and an abiding love for our terroir. That heritage transcends national boundaries.
Photos that Cousin Patricia thoughtfully shared with family members recently tell a story of love and loyalty and delight in each other as she and Niall celebrated (at the orchestration of their fine young people) their 50th wedding anniversary in the Lyragh Estate Hotel, outside the town of Kilkenny where Niall lived as a child.
My youth, when Daddy and his brothers and all their children called the Valley home, always seemed to me blessed and, dare I say, magical? With Granny as an anchor, the family met every day. No doubt there were adult stresses – financial, marital, personality differences – but the connections were always solid and in play. The family fortunes and adventures had fluctuated wildly over the centuries, but there was always a sense that we were people with a core that endured. A core and culture of decency, respect, humility, gratitude and kindness, and an abiding love for our terroir. That heritage transcends national boundaries.
Photos that Cousin Patricia thoughtfully shared with family members recently tell a story of love and loyalty and delight in each other as she and Niall celebrated (at the orchestration of their fine young people) their 50th wedding anniversary in the Lyragh Estate Hotel, outside the town of Kilkenny where Niall lived as a child.
Riceal, Ross, Aisling, Brioc, Niall, Patricia
Louis, Melanie (Brioc), Delilah, Aisling, Amelie Michael & Brioc
Uncle Langley’s brood also had celebrations this
summer – in Ontario. A big birthday for
Cousin Jennifer and a wedding for Beej’s handsome grandson (Amanda’s son) Dax, to Lovely Marlena. Beej, who lived in the U.S., Canada, Jamaica and Barbados, and returned to St Vincent to live years ago, also visited Maureen’s
tribe in Tanzania this year.
The family is growing in the United
States too. On June 17, Adam Yaseen, son of Raneen and Roger Bacchus, and grandson of my sis, Brenda, was born.
Also thriving in Ontario is brother Colin’s posse. As Hendrika relates in her post, it is Colin
who provided her introduction to our story and our selves. Colin and Tamara and their children (Daniel,
Paul, Nathan, Sarah) have a dog training business, which built on his uncanny
connection to canines. In our family,
you think Colin, or his mother Auntie Eileen, you think dogs! Check out his website and see what his clients have to say about his work...
Here he is, early on, always with an animal in the picture...
Thanks, Hendrika - you've added more to my life than I can say!
Thanks Family - I'm grateful you're mine.
One love,
Lisbie x
“When we share -- that is poetry in the prose
of life.”
Sigmund
Freud
"...the universe remains
"...the universe remains
an incomprehensible wheel of
grave attraction."
Eleanor Lermangrave attraction."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment