1st July 2013 is the first day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I have entered the challenge before but never quite got to the end so here goes!!
1st July is a very significant date for me and my family. When my first husband proposed to me and we were looking for wedding dates, it seemed most appropriate o choose 1st July. It was a Saturday, which is what we wanted but it was also my mum’s birthday and by choosing this date, I won lots of brownie points with my mum!!!!
So 1st July 1977 was the day I married Ivor Griffiths. Here you can see my very proud dad, about to give me away and it brings a smile to my face as I remember him rehearsing his line “I do” (in reply to who giveth this woman?) He rehearsed it in so many different ways it made me laugh!!
A very proud daddy about to give me away
Sadly, this marriage only lasted 16 years but it produced some very happy memories and 3 gorgeous children of whom I am very proud.
A few years later, my sister gained those all important brownie points by giving birth to her second child on 1st July. Zoe , my niece, has turned into a beautiful young woman.
Three years ago, my dear daddy left us . He died on June 15th. As he had led such a brilliant life, his funeral was not going to be one of mourning the dead, rather a great celebration of life with bright clothes and cheerful music. It seemed most appropriate for us to hold the service on 1st July. It was, indeed, a brilliant service with so many happy memories being recalled as my siblings and I all presented our own tributes to a very special man. We were able to do this in a way that would have made him proud as he had made sure we were proficient at public speaking.
Yesterday was again 1st July. I was travelling back from a brilliant holiday with friends. As I travelled, I recalled so many happy memories, not just of 1st July but of other family occasions too.
As I arrived back on my fairy Island (Isle of Wight) I managed to catch up with my brother and my mum briefly. I wanted to wish her happy birthday and we celebrated with a quick trip to McDonalds!!
celebrating mums birthday with a Mcdonalds
It seemed very fitting to start the first day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge with happy family memories (even though I am posting a day late – but then I was sooooooooo tired from travelling yesterday and the technology decided to beat me late last night)
A wonderful start to the challenge! I look forward to reading more from you this month!
thank you. I hope I manage to keep up with the challenge this time.
Well Lyn you are such a busy lady. So many things going on in your life and now a blog challenge. Wish you well in this and I will look forward to reading more. One other thing my big brother also has his birthday on the 1st July. This year being his 60th. Happy days. xxx
Thank you for your kind comments
Lyn, thanks for sharing with us why 1st July is so special for you. Interesting how so many events ended up on the same date. I love the part about your father practicing his “I do” line. I’m glad this day brings so many special memories for you and I look forward to reading more of your blog posts in the future.
Glad you liked the part about my dad. There are so many happy memories of him and I hope to share more of these with you as we go along. he was a very inspiring man. He taught me so much and I was lucky to have him for almost 60 years
He was 89 when he died.
Wow, you really do have a lot of special events on July 1st! I feel like I have learned so much about you from your first post! I’m looking forward to learning more this month!
Thank you Melissa. I have been persuaded to write my life story and have made a start. I never thought people would be interested until people kept telling me I should write it. It has been rather a rollwe coaster! but a lot of fun along the way.
What a lovely story. It is wonderful that you have all of those lovely memories surrounding one date. I look forward to reading more of your posts. Good luck on the challenge. I too have started the challenge before and haven’t finished. Maybe we can nudge each other along during the process. Happy blogging!
Yes I think we should help each other! I intend to make this third time lucky. I must have been so sleepy that uyesterday I posted on my wightbuzz site rather than on here but as I was talking about networking and Wightbuzz is a netwroking group then it didn’t matter.
I need to catch up and look at all you lovely peoples blogs. I have another eeting to dash out for so will have to do the catching up when I get back.