It’s been a funny old week or so.
Last week we attended the funeral of the eldest lady in the family. Tata (or auntie) Bernadette was 101 years old, she had lived in the village all her life, with her sister until the latter had to go into a home and then died a few years ago. She never married or had children but followed the lives of her nephews and nieces and then the next generation.
I met her shortly after I met my husband, and we would go for coffee after lunch every day, we would drink two cups, no more, no less and she would encourage us to have a couple of ciggies with them. She smoked a cigarette after lunch and dinner all her life, when she moved into the old people’s home, aged about 98 they tried to make he stop, so the local doctor would sneak the odd packet in for her.
The second funeral was yesterday, it was Marcel Duborgel, my husband’s great uncle. He was 103 when he died, he had been a taxi driver and shop keeper, he fought in the second world war in the navy and later in the French resistance. His memoires were published a few years ago and are a fascinating read.
For Marcel’s one hundredth birthday there was a big party in the village hall where he entertained us with his handstands on the table.
These people were born at a time where cars were a rarity, nobody had a phone, and they remember the first TV in the village. This was the last generation to never have used a computer and to think windows are for looking through. When I compare them to my kids I can see the speed of change, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it development.
While the funerals weren’t awfully sad, they weren’t really a shock after all; the wedding was a very different state of affairs.
Organised with the type of military precision that would have made Marcel proud the wedding between my eldest nephew and his wonderful girlfriend was utterly beautiful. It was a chance to spend time with the whole family – although with the other two events we’ve actually seen an awful lot of each other recently.
On top of this, my mom and aunt have come to stay and this all just underlines for me how important I think family is. Although I never had the possibility or inclination to have nine children as my amazing sister-in-law did, I do regret not providing my children with a bigger, closer family group, especially with my half living in another country.
Oh, well at least they’ve got plenty of cousins.
