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Let me tell you a story, it begins in May 2000, though it starts many years before, when the century was young, wrote Michael Whitehead.
I began tracing my family tree in May 2000; an unknown photograph hidden away for decades sparked my interest. When I asked my mother whom the image was of, she gave me chapter and verse, very interesting I thought.
Later, I realised that there must be many images that I had grown up with, that I knew nothing about. Furthermore, when mum was no longer around, no one would know whom these faces from the past were. So I began to dig!
Faceless photos began to take on the bodies of real people. It is one of these pictures that started the story that I would like to tell ......
First to set the scene. It is the turn of the century, people are looking to the future. New technology is everywhere, why, man had even conquered the air. A new age was about to dawn!
My grandfather had two sisters, Grace, and Minnie.Born in the 1890's they all lived in a North Derbyshire mining village. These communities were known for being extremely close knit.
Grace, the elder of the sisters, had a childhood sweetheart named Vic.
Minnie, a few years younger, dallied with Vic's best friend, who was named Freddie Barnes.
With the outbreak of WW1, the two pals decided to enlist, the fact that they were both underage for military service, did not seem to carry much influence with the pair. Nor did the authorities seem to be over vigilant when it came to recruitment, as they were both accepted.
Vic, went to his parents, and asked if they would object to him getting engaged to Grace, before he went away to war. Suprisingly they had no objections, neither had my great grandparents!
I have heard that the story went that way because they did not expect him to return, no objections were raised. Certainly, a couple of their ages getting engaged, was very rare in 1915.
Freddie also thought that this would be a good idea, but when he broached the subject, parental permission was definitely not forthcoming. As far as the families were concerned, they were both to young.
Well, the lads went off to war, and like countless others, were thrown into the meat-grinder that was the Western Front.Vic fought through every engagement to the armistice; Freddie, the young idealist, did not. He was killed on the Somme.
After the war, Vic returned home and married his childhood sweetheart. In due course they had a daughter, June, who later married and had a daughter named Hazel. Minnie never married.
I remember, as a child, visiting my great aunt's: there was a picture of a soldier in a black frame, on the dresser. Obviously, I now know that this was a picture of Minnies beau, Freddie.
This much of the story I knew. Last year, as I have said, I started to chart my family tree. I had gone to see my cousin, Hazel, in the hope that she would be able to supply me with some old family photos.
Over a cup of tea, we talked of the old folks, and the sad story of Minnie's lost love. After making the drink, Hazel excused herself, then on returning she smiled and said, 'I think you should see this.'
She opened her clasped palm, and nestling there was a ring. 'My grandma (Grace) gave me this before she died,' she said. It was the ring that Vic had given her, so many years before.
So the story that I had grown up with was true. Hazel's eyes twinkled mysteriously. I knew something was about to happen.
'Mick,' she said, 'You know how they wouldn't let Minnie and Freddie get engaged?'
I nodded.
She opened her other hand. A diamond solitaire sparkled.
'Well, they did anyway!'
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