Ancient Cheque.

On the 15th of February I put up a blip of my Great Grandmother's album of her happy second marriage. I had not read it very thoroughly. There were a lot of photos with hand written captions which I imagined were geographical details. But they were reflections of a very loving marriage, and the grief felt by Annie when her husband died.
I saw this wonderfully elaborate old cheque, and managed to read the caption.
It did not say what I expected. It told us that it was: 'The last writing of my dear 18 hours before his death'.

There are the most close and passionate notes in this album. I showed a friend it over a cup of tea on Sunday. She cried at some of the words. As a modern woman, it made me have a bit of a think about how we treat each other in this age. I am not sure there is so much kindness around now. I did not see the word empowered anywhere. Annie seemed more than happy and to have had a full 10 years of marriage with her second husband.
The day after I blipped the album I read the contents more carefully, and it moved me so much, that I fetched the old photograph of Annie which had been in a guest room, and put it beneath the portrait of her father, and across the room from a watercolour of her baby daughter.
It felt very right. She is now in the room with her family, and with me and mine. The blip of the album focused my attention, and brought her back to life for us. Before that, it was just a photograph in a frame, and a dusty old album.

And isn't the 113 year old chegue a wonderful looking thing.