The Selfish Giant and an amazing discovery

‘He did not hate the Winter now, for he knew that it was merely the Spring asleep.’

I love this quote. It’s from The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

I’ve just been out in the garden,.and though it’s very cold, with the winter sunshine glistening on the snow it’s not at all depressing, just restful, and I thought of this line from one of my favourite stories.

I remember when I first heard that story. I was 13 and we read it in English class. Then for homework we had to write it in our own words. I got an A. The teacher announced that only one child had got an A and then made me read my version out to the whole class. Later in the playground the other kids teased me, they danced around me chanting ‘Only one child got an A’. I made darn sure I never got an A again! It didn’t turn me against Oscar Wilde, though. I love his short stories.

I made a really fascinating discovery in my family history research. I was reading an article online about old toll houses in Wolverhampton when it mentioned a William Rogers who was a letter carrier in the mid 18 hundreds and I realised he was my great great grandfather’s brother! I recognised him because the article spoke of his father who lived to be 89 and lived in North Street. This matched my 3x gr grandfather who did have a son William. I checked the censuses and he was a letter carrier. The article also spoke of his grandmother who lived to be 101 years and nine months. This is my 4x gr grandmother! After looking for a week I finally found her in the census and was amazed to discover she had remarried a man called John Hughes. You see, I have two cups and a jug from my great grandmother. The jug is my 3x gr grandparents 15th wedding anniversary. One cup is the christening cup of their daughter Harriet, who was born the same year. The other is engraved John and Eliza Hughes. I assumed they were Godparents but couldn’t work out who they were as there were no Hughes in my family. I have solved the puzzle. My 4x gr grandmother remarried. It’s amazing to pick up that cup and realise it belonged to a woman born in 1763. The cup itself is dated 1841 so she became a Godmother at 78 and, ironically, outlived the baby, her granddaughter, who died at the age of 21. My great grandmother was her great granddaughter.

When I saw the sun this morning I did decide to do my window boxes but the bag of compost is frozen solid and I would need a hammer and chisel to get the pansies out of the plant trays so I decided to let it be. I think I’ll make a start on the Christmas cards instead.