Actually, after the spiel about my English grandfather that I linked, there's something else that my father told me six months or so ago. During and possibly before the Second World War, my grandfather helped smuggle European Jews into Britain and was jailed for this. I think that he had an affair or marriage with a German Jew, then left her for my grandmother; I think that she committed suicide. I say "think", because my mother told me this last part from hearing from my father, and I have never had the guts whenever I've remembered this dark tale to ask him further.
I was astonished that I had not been told this before. My father is sketchy on further details, as he only found it out 20 years ago when my grandfather died and left his autobiography. Unfortunately, my dad had only time to read these parts once, because my grandmother hid or destroyed the manuscript after my father read it; she was not happy with my father learning the darker, less flattering parts. Following a bad argument, we've been estranged from my grandmother for 12 years and I fear that I will never see this book.
I would like to know more about my paternal grandfather. I remember him being a fascinating, mischievous and mentally energetic man. My mother tells me that he used to always have three books on the go; one for commuting to and from work, one for reading at lunchtime, and one for the evening. My memories of speaking to him are poor, but three things immediately come to mind:
1. A story he told me about him and his elder brother joyriding a hot air balloon. Even at the age of eight, I could tell that he was telling a yarn.
2. That the Big Bang theory is wrong, because energy cannot be created or destroyed; I am amazed that I remember him talking about Fred Hoyle and his Steady State Theory, despite my knowing little of astrophysics at that age.
3. That every human life is priceless. This I remember him saying very slowly and carefully to me.
That's him at the front, my mother and both my grandmothers behind him:
