Christmas cards and reconnecting with people...
I opened a Christmas card yesterday from a couple in the village where my Dad lived. They included a cutting from Dad's old newspaper The Daily Mirror.....of course living here in Japan I hadn't seen this.
In his will Dad had left 200 pounds to the photographers on The Daily Mirror - to go out and have a drink on him. More than a year after he died the solicitor has all but finished sorting out his estate etc and in November I was able to send the money and a photo album to the Mirror.
And this was in the paper back in November! Made me cry....
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/11/13/mirror-photographer-leaves-money-in-will-for-colleagues-to-share-a-drink-on-fleet-street-115875-22713510/
Ahhhh.....strangely enough I am just writing to the solicitor this week about changing MY will (so my 18 year old godson doesn't get stupid money if I die tomorrow), and now I am wondering whether I should include this kind of bequest!
Dad worked for the Mirror almost all his working life, I've worked for about 5 different companies - so I don't have a strong bond to any group of colleagues really....hmmm....
Here at home: all well. Okaasan under control. We spent a quiet weekend at home, fed Okaasan her kind of food for lunch...and ate spaghetti bollangese ourselves two hours later...then Family Dinner in the evening. Okaasan went out walking and Yujiro and I managed to swoop into her room together and do some cleaning - 40 pairs of pants, trash, newspapers, a wet towel in a bag from the onsen trip a week ago....usual stuff. Some of the pants were very soiled, and the toilet seat too.....all in a day's work for Oyomesan.
I took some of the random food purchases into classes and gave them to students who do traditional cooking - the kilogram of sweetbean paste and the powdered soybeans....Okaasan buys this kind of stuff sometimes and of course never ever uses it. WE aren't going to use it either...so it found new homes.
One student told me her grandmother used to buy spinach endlessly - and hide it in closets and drawers in her bedroom! The family was always on spinach hunts.
We are so lucky it is only bits of bread, rice crackers and dried stuff!!
Christmas Night: All or nothing. Thankfully ALL! From being a Sad Little Oyomesan with No Family and Friends for Christmas Night...I now have FIVE friends who are going to come and have dinner with me in the swanky restaurant on December 25th!
It really WILL be a Happy Christmas.
Hoping it really is a Happy Christmas! Your dad was famous... wow....! Very generous too. Seems like all is well in your part of the world.
ReplyDeleteThankyou JY.
ReplyDeleteWell, my dad wasn't really famous....he was a staff photographer on a popular British newspaper for almost 40 years - and particularly in those days the paper was known for its pictures of celebs.
He did a bit of papparazi stuff - but mainly he went where the editor sent him.
But I AM so touched that the paper gave him this nice tribute and he would be so happy to think of the photographers in the pub having a drink in his memory.
That is so great what your dad did. Because I'm perpetually poor I won't be leaving any money to anyone. But in the unlikely event that I will indeed end up with a small pile of cash, it will all go to a cat shelter somewhere.
ReplyDeleteAnd the story of your MIL... I see myself in a few years time.
Just read the article. It's such a sweet thought to leave something behind for people you worked with for such a long time.
ReplyDeleteAlso made me smile, I sometimes go to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese for a drink. It's a small world...