Who and what are the characters and settings in the next chapter? You will see a lot of my family and their stories — my grandparents, my parents, and my brother. Our dog, Laddie and our cat, Poppy were also ‘family’, but they will have their story in the latter chapters of this book.
But first and foremost, the story is obviously about me! However, in the words of John Donne – “No man is an Island”:
No Man is an Island
No man is an island entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as any manner of thy friends
or of thine own were;
any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.
Many of the people in my life have been “washed away” already, especially in my family: my father, mother, two of my brothers, and also members of my wider family, as well as friends. The bell has tolled for them, and thus for me, many times already; each time, each death diminishes me. None of us stands alone in the world, so each human death affects all of us. Every funeral bell, therefore, “tolls for thee.”
In other words, the story is not only about me. In the first instance, I will briefly introduce my close family, my brothers, and mother and father. But hopefully their characters will emerge as the story is told, so here I will just present some factual details, and a photo gallery.
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