Generations "That's What he was like...."
A reporter on the Daily Telegraph wrote this piece earlier this week. (Michael Deacon).
It seemed to describe someone so much like people I know and I wondered if you might feel the same?
I get the feeling that lots of us are of the same stock?
This is what he said - do you know anyone like this?
“My Grandfather died last week. John Turner, of Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Second World War veteran, motor mechanic, marine engineer, 1921-2017.
My mother wrote a eulogy. I read it out at the funeral. And as I did so, something occurred to me. Personal though it was, it felt as if it didn’t just describe him alone. It described his generation of men.
Serious, single-minded, resilient, stoical. All those words came up. Practical, helpful, useful.
You can imagine the kind of man he was. The kind of man who kept every kind of tool imaginable, not only in his shed but in every room in the house, and who would (to my grandmother’s irritation) leave bits of engines lying on the dining room table, to resume fiddling with later. The kind of man who was well into his nineties, years after my grandmother had died, insisted on maintaining his independence, and on living in his own home, for as long as it remained physically possible. The kind of man who just got on with things, and didn’t want a big fuss made of it, or for him.
That’s what he was like-and what his generation was like, too.”