"When the police knocked the door down they found a mountain of mail in the hall and Henry Summers was inside, dead. He had been dead for three years, undiscovered, because all of his bills were paid by direct debit."
The journalist goes on to tell the story of who this man had been.
Read the story this morning. Reminds me of how the strings of history are found by simple sleuthing at times. The article's reference to Henry's trade was a connector to me.
ReplyDeleteIn getting to know my maternal grandmother's family, I found they were ethnic Frisians who were German-speaking. Hundreds of years of living on a small island off the west coast of what was once Denmark, then Prussia. I know my grandmother's father left within months of the Declaration of the Empire of Germany -- they, as many of their people, were likely refusing to be conscripted! (They had not gained emigration papers and all three sons were listed as missing without leave when they became of age for service.)
I found relations in this part of my family who were sea captains, masters, able seamen and ships' carpenters... all involved in what had been a flourishing whaling trade in the North Atlantic and Greenland waters.
Harry was a ship's carpenter. It was in my family research I found that Frisian whaling captains hired many Scots off the Aberdeenshire coast and points south. Chances are our families past shared work and times together. A small tie to another people here in Europe.
And why, when one moves country, you can find you're still at home.
Yes, we're all connected one way or another. The chance discoveries make life richer. Other readers will need to go to the BBC link to catch what spurred this comment.
DeleteMeant Henry, of course!
ReplyDelete