Wee Frenchie

Yesterday’s blip was about old Kirk Session minutes. Today involved current Kirk Session duties as I attended a 2 hour zoom meeting on safeguarding in our Church and the duties of Session members. Very constructive and helpful.

After that I needed a good walk so headed off with the dog to Newington Cemetery ( or Newington Necropolis as it used to be known). The snowdrops I blipped last month (22 February) had all gone but there was still some colour as you can see.

The cemetery is full of good Scottish family names ( Munro, Forbes, Laing, and so on) but many of the headstones are flat on the ground and some are broken. A notice at the entrance explains that they are left on the ground for health and safety reasons. Understandable: but it does give an overall atmosphere of neglect.

This headstone records the death of a father Robert Charlton of the Royal Scots reported missing in 1918. And of a dear brother John French who died in August 1919.

In the past I would have just noted the date but with what we’ve experienced with Covid-19 you wonder if his death resulted from the flu pandemic after the war. It may have been an accident. Or injuries. Or other health problem.

I’ll never know. But as you may just make out on the headstone, after his name is written “(Wee Frenchie)” which begins to conjour up some idea of the character of the man.

Again I’ll never know but those few less formal words offer a new dimension.