Today it is seventy-five years since VE Day. It has been marked in a quiet way due to current circumstances because of course there can be no parades or concerts attended by the public. There have been some television programmes to commemorate it and we listened to the Queen’s broadcast at 9 p.m. I found it quite moving; she was a young woman in 1945, and slipped out of the palace to celebrate with the crowds. I know that my Mum was in Glasgow in her Dad’s car on VE Day, because I remember that she told me that he was furious when someone from the partying crowd jumped onto the car roof to dance in celebration! I don’t know what my Dad did to celebrate VE Day; he was still in the army in Italy at the end of the war.
Just after the Queen’s speech, someone let off some fireworks up the hill from us, and poor Tom must have got an awful fright because he came tearing down the garden, burst in through the cat flap and scarpered upstairs.
This afternoon I got out the family tree folder to show Ally something about the Russell family and I noticed some notes that I had written in the 1990s - some of my Dad’s family stories. I am so glad that I wrote these down when I had the chance. Among many other family members’ names, I had happened to jot down the name of one of my Dad’s cousins’ sons. I didn’t know this person at the time and don't even remember writing it down, but when I came across the name today I realised that it happens to be the exact name of the father of my friend Suzy, who lives diagonally back from us. I immediately messaged her to confirm it by asking her what is her paternal grandmother’s name and was thrilled to find out that we are indeed related! Suzy’s Gran is my Dad’s first cousin and her Dad is my second cousin! It’s such a lovely surprise! I hope to meet with Suzy’s grandmother after the quarantine is over to have a good chat about the family.
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