650 Years Of Family

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Today my sister, elder brother and I were invited to a luncheon party with an old friend of the family. There were nine of us altogether with a combined age of around 650 years (I didn't ask everyone's age, so that's an 'educated guess'). The story began with a chance encounter 72 years ago when a young lady of 18, cycling through a village near Cambridge stopped and asked my father if he knew of anywhere in the village where she could find lodgings for a few days. It was war time and everywhere she had tried so far had no vacancies because so many American servicemen had brought their wives over to Britain. My father told her that if she waited 10 minutes, she could speak to my mother. It so happened that we did have a spare room and, yes, Margaret would be very welcome to stay for as long as she wanted. In the end she stayed with us for three years and became a life-long friend of the family. Today's luncheon party was a most pleasant get-together with much reminiscing and a meeting with several people (Margaret's children and their partners) whom we hadn't met before. It was one of those occasions where there was no awkwardness and, even though several of us hadn't met before, it felt as if we all belonged to one family. Strange how such a rich part of the tapestry of family life and friendship should have arisen from a chance encounter. If my father hadn't happened to be standing at the gate (with me, his small son), very likely just observing the world while my mother bathed my baby brother, the whole chain of events leading up to a pleasant lunch very likely wouldn't have happened!