Gallery Samples Stories of our Ancestors | Page 63

say and of course you’re right. It was Old-Fashioned; it was a long time ago. But it wasn’t oldfashioned then. And I wonder how much we have lost in our worship of the New, the Young,
the Technological and the Sophisticated?
And so we leave our long-ago family and our ancestors in happy mood this summer night in
Pietermaritzburg. Aunty Ellen is radiant and quite proud of her family this evening; Aunty
Alma is keeping Les comfortable; Uncle Bertie is enjoying the teasing of young Maurice and
Laurie; Granny Rebecca is feeding people and looks happy for the first time since Grandpa died;
my brother Alan is having fun with Georgie and my Mother Ruby is smiling anxiously at me
thinking I should be in bed by now. I avoid any eye-contact with her and stifle the first hint of a
yawn.
So, on this happy memory of a party I leave the extended Hodgkiss family to move on from
wherever their spirits lead them. And I give thanks to our ancestors and to those who are with
us now and those who are yet to come. The genes live on in all of us and remain when all else
has faded into memory.

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