11/11/2024
PERSPECTIVE
These are my grandparents. They were all involved in the war effort...navigator on a bomber, physician who set up the first field hospital after D day, and the more secret servers....my grandmothers! One grandmother worked in ciphers and her sisters were MI5. The other was a bookkeeper.
Some of these people were warm loving parents and grandparents, some less so. Some were certainly hard to live with at times. But look at them. I can't begin to think of the responsibility they took on at a young age. At a time when I was graduating my final degree and living a vibrant life in the city, they would have been watching comrades not come back from training missions, or piecing allied soldiers together in a trench. They took that responsibility to heart and carried that grit and stoicism to their ends. Vulnerability wasn't safe.
I can't judge that. That trauma was forged deep and they did the best they could. They moved to different nations to allow their children the privilege of safety and education. And those children, my parents, created space for me to live fully without fear. What an incredible privilege I sit in because of their choices.
So today, in particular, I remember them with an open heart of thanks. I will wear my mask and wash my hands because if that is all that is being asked of me in our current crisis, how could I dare complain?
Cyril Childs, Muriel (Mitchell) Childs, Dr.John Murray Growse, Margaret (Hanrahan) Growse. Rest in peace.
