celebration day: 26 may...

Today, May Bank Holiday, is apparently ‘Celebration Day’ – a recently-created, dedicated opportunity to honour and celebrate the lasting impact of those who have inspired and shaped us—whether through personal connections, history, or culture—and whose influence continues long after they’ve died.
An opportunity to share stories.
For me, although perhaps there have been times when I didn’t quite acknowledge his influence on my life, that person is probably my father: Ronald Frederick Broadway (1921-1992).
I scribbled this as my ‘Celebration Day’ contribution:
 
I’ve been thinking about my father a lot recently.
I wish I’d known him better.
That we’d had more opportunities
To chat, just the two of us…
Like those days in the 70s in Oxford
In a pub, on a Sunday lunchtime, when he was down to visit.
Yes, we definitely had our different opinions(!),
But they were special times…
And I realise that now.
He died more than 30 years ago.
So much has changed since then.
He’d be delighted and appalled in equal measure.
 
I sometimes imagine us meeting in that pub again
An opportunity for me to tell him
What’s happened since he departed…
That Moira+I still love each other after more than 50 years together
About the amazing women his granddaughters have become,
Since he last saw them in their emerging teens.
Perhaps a chance for them to tell their own stories?
And he’d be so proud to learn about his great-grandchildren
As they make their respective ways into the adult world.
I can see him shaking his head and smiling.
But there’s so much more to tell…
Can I buy you another pint Dad?
 
Photo: My Dad… with his granddaughters Alice, Han+Ru in our back garden in Thame (c.1987/8?) - before Ru’s garden re-design and before I’d re-painted the shed door to look like a cricket scoreboard!
PS: Back in 2011, I wrote a brief blogpost about remembering my father. It’s strange re-reading it today.