September Class 'If I could turn back time...'

Thanks to everyone who came along to today's class in le Cheile, Donnycarney. We made this double layout using the new 7 Gypsies 'Nottinghill' papers. This photo shows my grandparents on their honeymoon in Avoca, after they had eloped to get married. My Nana lived in Dublin and grampa used to come into the plant and seed shop where she worked to chat her up. Eventually he asked her out and their first date was to see the movie 'Me and my girl' with Deanna Derbin. I actually think she looked very like her in her day. She was beautiful.

Eventually Nana's father (my great grandfather) heard about their blossoming relationship and didn't approve as she was a good deal younger than grampa (she was 19 and he was 28). So, in an attempt to split them up he took a job in the midlands as a violin teacher and moved the whole family away from Dublin. [Ironically, as it turned out, she was living in a house which is only ten minutes walk from where I live now - funny how we end up going back to our roots somehow!] Before she left grampa gave her a £5 note (which was so much money back then) and told her to sew the note into the hem of her coat, which she did.

The next bit is the part I don't much about but Nana eloped and got on a train to Dublin staying with her best friend (Mary Norton- I do remember this bit!) until she was able to arrange to get married to Grampa. I know her parents didn't go to her wedding (which is so terribly sad) and it wasn't until her first son was born 2 years later that they got in touch and patched things up. If I could turn back time I would ask them to tell me again all about their love story...


And this is the happy pair on their wedding day. This story of theirs is one of the reasons why I scrap. If I didn't write it down my children or future grandchildren would never know how they came to be...It makes me wonder what would have happened if she had never caught that train???