Sunday, July 8, 2012

Great Great Uncle Joseph

It's Bethany's birthday today and, never fear, a birthday post will follow later today. When I woke this morning, just before eight (Bethany couldn't quite wait), I had an email from Mum in France. She and Dad had gone to the cemetery in Harbonnieres to visit the grave of my Great Great Uncle, Joseph Lawson Presho, who died there during World War I.


He was my grandfather, Joe Joe's, uncle and when Nanna Goldsmith (my great grandmother) was pregnant with Joe Joe, he was killed and she named her son after him. Joseph Lawson Goldsmith.


It's odd, don't you think, that I should cry as soon as I read the email? Cry over this man and his sister, people I never met. Bethany was wondering why I was crying on her birthday. There is something very powerful about family, I suppose, and I loved Joe Joe so very much. Mum and Dad, who aren't at all related to Joseph Presho, put a rose on his grave and told him that he is not forgotten. I'm in floods. One day, I'll go too.

1 comment:

  1. Tears on both sides of the world! It took a little to find the cemetary but we are so glad we did and that we could find his resting place. Our love to all the rels and hope that one day they can visit him there too.

    (Mum here) - I also loved Joe-Joe, and the story of how he got his name was touching to me, so we were determined to find the gravesite. It's a very peaceful and pretty place, there are worse places in the world to go to your eternal rest, even if it is so very far from home.

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