Crossways

When I visited my Uncle Jack's grave in Norton-on-Derwent just after Remembrance Sunday, I was surprised to see that someone had placed a little wooden cross there only a few days beforehand. Here it is:-

It recalls the fact that at the age of twenty three, Jack (Alec) died aboard a Blenheim bomber out of RAF Debden which came down on the night of November 16th 1940. I know I have written about this before. In ploughed fields, near the Essex hamlet of Ramsey Tyrrells, he died with two other young men.

But who had put the cross there? Returning from my little pilgrimage, I posted a photo of Uncle Jack's grave on the Geograph website and thought little more about it but then out of the blue there came an email message from a blood relative I never knew existed. Not only had he spotted the grave picture but he was responsible for placing the little cross upon Jack's grave.

My grandfather had a younger brother called Tom who was the father of my newly acquired relative - John. Turns out that John, rather co-incidentally, spent many years teaching in the Bradford area but is now retired. Oddly, he doesn't have his own home computer but logs in during his weekly visits to the public library in Ilkley. I have sent him some family photos and he has promised to send me a list of the people who attended Uncle Jack's funeral in 1940. Would you agree that the internet has a habit of opening doors and windows, enhancing our lives.