When I was a child my maternal grandmother used to talk about the Irish potato famine. Her family came over to England to escape the famine. Being young I never really took it seriously but these images really brought it home to me when I saw them.They stand alongside the River Liffy in Dublin. I am so glad she told me her stories and my advise to any adults out there is to tell your stories to the young, even if they don't seem interested, as in later years they really will remember them.
I am not a believer in life after death but that your personality and strange little ways carry on in your descendants. Give then something to remember you by it is strangely comforting. My father was a tremendous story teller, usually funny but sometimes poignant and his memory lives in through those stories.
I'm not being morbid I just think that now we all seem to think it isn't cool to talk about the old days and that is so sad.
1 comment:
There's a wonderful memorial at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia. It's a massive bronze sculpture where the starving people in Ireland meld into the immigrants crossing the sea and arriving in the States. You can see photos at this website.
M.
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