‘And if you know your history…’

Yesterday I mentioned my flying visit to meet Solidarnosc in Warsaw, and promised to expand a little about my trip over there. Even the few hours I spent in the city, made me realise how gloriously ignorant I am about my family’s history.

When I was growing up the fact that my grandfather was Polish and had come across to Liverpool during the war barely registered – all I really knew was that ‘Grandad Joe’, who was born in Katowice and was an engineer in the Polish RAF, spoke with a funny accent and gave us funny sweets which may have gone down a treat in Poland but which weren’t much cop for kids up on Spangles.

The things I remember most about my grand-dad Joe are nearly all sad – he used to cry out at night when he slept; he nursed my grandmother when she succumbed to Alzheimer’s, he worked for English Electric for decades and was left with little more to show for it than a radio and watch he was presented with when he retired. My saddest memory is that I didn’t cry when he died – which I've never understood because me and my brother loved him to bits. But I do remember that he was also one of the nicest and truly ‘great’ blokes you could ever hope to meet – and my dad is truly his father’s son.

My other grand-dad, ‘Jimmy’ Tsang, also came over during the war, but from Hong Kong not Eastern Europe. Jimmy was a ship’s cook, life-long gambler, father of 11, and a teller of pretty tall tales (his claim to be the first Chinese guy to pull on a blue short for Everton being one such example – I’ve often wished this were true!). He died nearly two years ago and I spoke at his funeral - mainly because my aunties and uncles were to upset too. As I grew up, got married and had kids I hardly ever saw him, which I hope is something that will never happen with my parents and kids.

Although I know very little about my family’s history, I hope I’ve inherited a little bit of their values – hopefully that's more important than knowing the dates and places.

Maybe that’s what family history is really about? Passing down ideas and values not heirlooms…helping your kids to make the right choices and treat people the right way, rather than slaving over family trees?

Sorry for the maudlin post – think it was probably brought on by the two-minutes silence held earlier in London today, and which I shared with colleagues outside Congress House. A city like London can never be truly quiet, but I’ve never heard Big Ben (some 20 mins walk away at least) chime the hour before, which gives you some sense of how still London was.


Oh – and all this introspection was brought on by my visit to Warsaw, which I promise I actually will blog about tomorrow. Apologies for those of you who clicked onto this blog to actually read about what it says on the tin – ‘unions, politics and more’ – navel gazing will give way to ‘proper stuff’ tomorrow.