Things Old and New ... and Something that's Both!

The week (at least the bits I'm writing about) started and ended with peace and quiet in good company.

Last weekend I spent with my cousin and, in keeping with a habit recently developed on these occasions, on Sunday I took the bus into Nottingham.  As I walked down the aisle I could see that, for a Sunday morning, there seemed to be a lot of people on board and every seat was occupied by at least one passenger already.  I made to sit down next to a woman who quickly realised that the bags beside her would be in my way.  As she cleared the seat, she said, "There you are, sweetie!" which, coming from a lady only a few years younger than me, didn't seem in the least cheeky but more in keeping with the easy-going East Midland culture.

My destination was the Quaker Meeting House where, now on my third visit there, I took a seat briefly in the lounge chatting with one or two familiar faces before going into the meeting room.  After the hour's silence, interrupted by only two pieces of ministry, there was - in common with many places of worship these days - a chance for conversation over coffee and cake, where I enjoyed company with new friends as well as those now becoming established.

I returned from my break soon enough to get up on Monday morning for the usual prayer breakfast and life quickly returned to normal.  In addition to a Lib Dem AGM this week, and preparations for our own branch's AGM next week, there has also been a quick re-run of the results of last year's exercise to organise the distribution of the church's Christmas cards, with their arrival expected next week.  But by far the greatest non-routine time consumption this week has been family history.

Whilst with my cousin last weekend, we discovered that my records don't include the marriage date for our eldest maternal great-uncle and his wife.  As I began to look into this on Monday afternoon, I found that my record of our great-aunt's maiden name differed from one place to another!  The source of this apparent discrepancy indicated that the lady had not only been previously married, but that this marriage had ended in divorce scarcely a year before her second ... which possibly explains why little was known about this great-uncle compared to our grandmother and their four other siblings.

Amazingly, I discovered this unsavoury event listed on the National Archives website although, since these records aren't digitised, I could go no further online.  However, for the outlay of only £8.00, I have requested a 'page count', which will reveal the cost of sending me a copy by e-mail of the documents, which will hopefully unfold the detail of a close family story that has remained hidden from us for all of our lives!

Today I spent the morning on one of the hospice vans, servicing four of their retail shops and also collecting donations from a fifth.  After spending a surprisingly enjoyable hour or so unloading the product of these calls and helping to reload the van for this afternoon's deliveries, I joined my fellows at the dining table relaxing over my packed lunch before walking home for an afternoon ... at the keyboard once more.