My Grandfathers

This week's theme for Flashback Friday.

My mum's father was called Grandad by us. He was a father to seven children. The youngest was nine-ish when I was born, which might explain his relaxed hold on me.

He was in the Navy for a while and he was a lawyer. But I knew him mainly as a judge. Which is maybe why I was slightly awed by him. I loved him but I always felt I needed to behave well in his presence.

When I did my Post-Graduate Diploma in Melbourne, I studied in a building with his surname. It took me a year to realise it was actually named after my Grandfather. I really wanted to tell him that, about how proud that made me feel, but it was several years too late by then. And maybe he would have minded that I was unaware that he was so important people named buildings after him? I don't know. We grew up in another state, so we saw him once or twice a year on average.

As well as being a judge, he was also a Sir. I remember when he came to Canberra to be knighted by the Governor-General.

As he aged he became a much softer person. My mother and aunts occasionally joked about how his eyes would fill with tears and his voice would break when he remembered his own mother. Family was important to him. He gave me a photo album with significant photos in it, so that I would know about my family. He started putting together the family tree. When he became very ill he held on until he felt he had settled his 2 youngest children satisfactorily. When he lay dying, Mum told me took everyone's hands and kissed them, his last good-bye.

He liked to give books as presents. He loved salt on his meals - even when the heart doctor told him to cut it out he still lavishly seasoned his dinner using salt-substitute. He was glad that I learned piano. He talked to me seriously. He didn't tease.



My Dad's father we called Grandpa. I remember him as soft-spoken but maybe this is because he was on oxygen during the last few years of his life. I think he was the sort of person who really loved small children, who wanted them to sit by him and found them funny. I remember laughter about him, a sort of happy chuckle.

He was a Mister Fixit too, he worked on the Olympic Village for the 1956 games. He volunteered for the Red Cross after he retired. I do that now. I only just made that connection.

I think he and Grandma did 'outings' for us, like taking us to Luna Park and to see Phar Lap at the Museum.

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It's funny the things you remember, isn't it? It's been 26 years since Grandpa died and 19 years since Grandad died, which is all my adult life. So I only have these childish memories; feelings, and impressions. My knowledge of both of them is second-hand, almost. I can still hear their voices and picture them quite clearly though.