Generations

It was my mother's 101st birthday today. She still lives independently in her own apartment so my family assembled there for presents, cake, champagne etc. Those present included my son, daughter,...granddaughter who brought her second son (and therefore my second great grandchild) who is six days old.

Of course photographs were taken and so on...and all I will note is that it was quite poignant for me to look at my mother holding another human being 101 years her junior.

And then ponder and reflect on the next century.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Graham Breeze

It was my mother's 101st birthday today. She still lives independently in her own apartment so my family assembled there for presents, cake, champagne etc. Those present included my son, daughter,...granddaughter who brought her second son (and therefore my second great grandchild) who is six days old.

Of course photographs were taken and so on...and all I will note is that it was quite poignant for me to look at my mother holding another human being 101 years her junior.

And then ponder and reflect on the next century.

---

That's sounds like a really wonderful event Graham. Happy Birthday to your mother too.

Wonderful family celebration. I can’t deny that I currently see the world through a pessimistic veil, conflict dominating my pessimism.
But the human race has been through many conflicts before and we humans inevitably rise from the ashes of destruction like a phoenix, scorched but not destroyed.
I hope the new addition makes his way through a turbulent world in peace.

101 and still living independently - amazing. With any luck you have inherited the relevant genes. Happy Birthday to your mother.

Five generations of Graham's family in the same house! A real contrast to my family: I remember when it dawned on me, at the age of about 7, that some of my friends at school had grandparents who were actually still alive; living grandparents were a novel concept to me. Until then, a grandparent was the rather elegant lady in the photograph on my mother's bedroom wall, of whom my mother sometimes reminisced. When my son was born, he did at least have one grandparent still alive, although she was about 8,000 miles away.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mike T

101 and still living independently - amazing. With any luck you have inherited the relevant genes. Happy Birthday to your mother.

---

Thank you. I am hopeful.

But, as you know, lifestyle matters. My mother has never been a drinker, she has never smoked, has been a vegetarian since her teens and never allowed herself to become obese.

Her younger sisters were smokers and died twenty or so years ago from smoking related cancers.

One should not generalise from the particular but still...

Incredible Graham and congratulations.
I'm certainly valuing those top - bottom generational get togethers far more as I get older.
We recently had my youngest daughters wedding with 3 octogenarian great grandparents and a number of great grandchildren across the family, the oldest being a teenager and I did wonder that there's a chance that at least one of them will see a great, great grandchild.
I was lucky enough to see all 4 grandparents, but no great grandparents that I remember as the two alive when I was born passed away not long afterwards and I was the eldest grandchild.

So things have changed, and whilst I bang on at times, there is a lot to be happy and optimistic about.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Witton Park

So things have changed, and whilst I bang on at times, there is a lot to be happy and optimistic about.

---

Times have indeed changed and with the relative peace we've had in Europe and elsewhere, this has allowed some of the multi-generational families we have in the UK today.

I never knew either of my grandfathers. One died in Burma in WW2, fighting the Japs, having already survived WW1 after joining up at age '16' and stayed on and made a career in the Army. The other was also killed in WW2, in North Africa.

Previously, we had relative peace in Europe between 1815 and 1914. I guess there were plenty of multi-generational families then too.