Fred’s children have all grown up and I forget that we are now those embarrassingly loud old Aunts & Uncles in the corner at parties, dad jokes at the ready.
Me? I left Australia two weeks after my thirtieth birthday. Due to the tyranny of distance and communications pre-social media, I have missed many family gatherings and events large and small. Upon reflection this is a bit sad, but time and the internet can heal many things and enable the stories that came from these events to be captured.
Since leaving Australia I have lost a couple (or they chose to lose me depending how you look at it) but I eventually found the one and we and our two step-children (well step-adults) live a wonderful life in New Zealand. Well I say New Zealand but one of the Step-adults is back living her life in England.
I have been fortunate through work to live in and experience different parts of the world, now Christchurch is home and the beach, dogs and cats along with family and friends keep me happy. Having been diagnosed with rare blood disorder (if you want to you can read about it here) my work time is done and I confess I am not sad about this.
With time to reflect came the ability to start this blog by transcribing Dad’s stories and conceiving of this aspiration to enable the wider family to capture their unwritten stories for posterity (or the 10 year life of this web address, whichever comes sooner). I hope this will trigger some thinking.
What will be fascinating is that whilst I can look back and know that many stories better left un-photographed have been, the generations to come will have millions of selfies of every minute of the day, good or bad to choose from. That said I look forward to capturing as many stories as we can.
Anthon Photos
