Festivity

A story of festivity: from Joan and Iain

 This time of the year can be lonely when one is old. But Joan and Iain
had Gaby Leao and her husband Rafael Drummond (probably a man of  -very
long distant - Scottish ancestry) with us all of Xmas. We live in
Glasgow; they flew in from Recife in Brazil to spend some time with us.

 Now how did that happen? More than 20 years ago (1992), Gaby's mother
Ana came to study for a few months with us at the University of
Strathclyde . And we (Joan, Ana and I) became friends. 3 years later
(1995)  Ana returned for a year to do a masters degree, this time with
her 10/11-yr-old daughter Gaby. I met them at Glasgow Airport and Ana
said "Gaby has only one word of English". Gaby, using her only word of
English,  said "Hello, Iain". By the end of the year 1996 the mother Ana
had acquired her masters degree and daughter Gaby, having spent a year
in a local school, spoke immaculate, if very Glaswegian, English. I
sometimes had to translate Gaby's Glasgow English into English English
for her mother Ana. (As in "fling me doon me jackait ma")

 In 2002, Gaby returned to Glasgow for some months in between school and
university and lived with Joan and me. Studied English and did a bit of
partying. We watched the 2002 World Cup together - which was won by
Brazil. We put a big Brazilian flag at the entrance hall to our house;
and said that it would stay there until Gaby returned. Which it has.

 Two years ago (2011), Joan and I went to Recife to attend the wedding
of Gaby and Rafael. We had a great time. Of which the Sunday Herald made
a bit of a story.

 Yesterday (2013) , Gaby and Rafael flew into Glasgow via Lisbon and
Paris. Today we walked down to look again at the place in Glasgow where
she and her Mum had lived so many years ago and to see again the school
she had attended. And we then had a Christmas dinner together.

 So that is how it happened, but why did this happen?

Well, of course, the technology of the
late 20th century and of the early 21st century has helped us to stay
together as this extended family over what is now twenty years:
Facebook, Blackberrys and all that stuff. But mostly we have used a
technology that has been around for thousands of years: the (greatly
underused) human capacity to enjoy and respect and love each other's
company.

I hope you like this story.