Family

Today was a proud day indeed. Remember four years ago when I blogged about Jocelyn getting a fiancee visa from the British Consulate in Los Angeles, which paved the way for her to travel to Blighty with the intention of marrying me..? Well, since then we’ve turned that fiancee visa into a limited leave visa, and then into a settlement visa. We have spent over £2000 on government fees for these various rubber stamps – outrageously high amounts which resulted in letters being sent to and from the Home Office. Along the way, we got married, moved house, and of course Benjamin came along to change our lives forever (in a good way, of course, Son!). ...

It gives me unparalleled joy to announce the birth of Mr Benjamin George Nelson. Following a relatively swift labour, the new arrival entered the world suddenly at York Hospital on Wednesday at 22:24 local time (see this time in your time zone). Birth mass was 4.185 kilograms (9 pounds 3 ounces), length was 51 centimetres (20 inches).

On this Remembrance Sunday, permit me to share with you a photo that my cousin Helen took this week of our Granduncle’s grave in France. Private William Henry Worfolk (1896 – 1916) of the York and Lancaster Regiment was my Grandfather’s elder brother (by four years), and was only just old enough to fight (and die) in the First World War. A couple of years later and it could just as easily have been my grandfather, and then I wouldn’t be here to tell you this tale. Ninety years on from that most bloody of wars, we still have much to be thankful for. ...