Random acts of kindness

What a day. Got home at 11.45pm.

Today, a comment to a complete stranger in the butty shop this morning resulted in an impromptu hug and a really lovely chat. This woman was probably a similar age to me, but as is the case with a lot of the people in the area local to school, high levels of social deprivation means that their health and wellbeing are not as good as those of us priviledged to live in 'middle class' areas. She looked tired, and poorly. I said to her sympathetically that she looked poorly and maybe she should sit down whilst she was waiting. She came over to me and hugged me, and told me that she "loves people like you" who actually show some concern for people, even when they know nothing about them. We then proceeded to stand and chat, only for a few minutes, about why she was poorly, and for those few minutes, there was a lovely sense of 'doing something good' as we talked, with her brother about life in general. I had to leave, would have loved to have stayed and had a brew with her and given her a bit more time. I hope that she gets better.

Aside from that, work was largely uneventful, which is a good thing. Apart from finding out that a parent had told a colleague of mine yesterday that she was "ashamed" that her son was at our school and that she was "embarassed at having to drive down the road that the school is on". Judgemental about our local area, about our students and their families. Not embarassed about the reasons why her child has had to come to our school, when perhaps she actually should be. Understandably, colleagues who know are feeling offended by her behaviour - we are proud of our school and our students, and are well supported (generally) by our families. How dare someone be so disparaging. We'll see how this one plays out.

This evening, I have been over to Nana's, then over to my Great Auntie Rose's house, to trawl through birth certificates and photos to start to find clues about where my family tree needs to go. It's been emotional in a really positive way. I just so wish that the people in those pictures could be re-animated so that I could talk to them. How wonderful that would be. The photo today is of my Nana, who I returned to after seeing Rose. She is reading something from the collection of things from 'Uncle' Frank's paperwork - he was not an uncle, but he lived in my great grandmother's house with my Nana and her sisters for 26 years and so he became family. I have his Last Will and Testament, the deeds to the grave that he and 4 other family members are buried in, in Anfield Cemetary, and so much other stuff. All to be scanned, catalogued and then returned to Rose. Along with all of this, I have birth certificates for my great grandparents and my great Uncle, photos from when Uncle Lofty was posted to Haifa in Palestine in 1946, a temporary passport from 1970 for Lofty and Rose and a treasure trove of photos, which I know are just the tip of the iceberg.

in the midst of all of this treasure, a photo of the Liver Building, with scaffold on each of the turrets, with no Liver Birds on either one - must have been when they were being installed.

So very interesting.

Nana and Rose, still so full of fun and mischief. I am blessed to be able to spend time with them. James wants to go over for a day in half term and get them to tell him stories about their time growing up in Liverpool during the war. That will be an education in itself I am sure.

So tonight, when potentially we will be disturbed by the neighbour's son, as his parents are away for the weekend, I won't care, because if I can't sleep, then I will be scanning and organising and trying to piece together some bits of this jigsaw puzzle.