Today would have been my maternal grandma’s 93rd birthday. She’s been on my mind a lot these past few weeks as i’ve ben tracing my maternal ancestry and she’s a pivotal plot twist in the narrative that led to my existence.

There’s discrepancies in the story that gets told as to how old she was when she met and fell in love with my grandad but it seems to have been around the age of 15-16. Born and raised in Egypt, she was training with the Red Cross when she met a handsome English man who would regularly pass through Suez. Part of the engineering team building a railway line for the war effort he was moving up and down through the continent constantly. He regularly told us growing up that it was love at first sight..

Their relationship was frowned upon by everyone, they didn’t care. This spirited, independent, courageous young woman married her soldier at a time that ‘mixed’ marriages were controversial to all. She moved across the world, away from a rather lavish lifestyle in Egypt to post war Britain with a young baby and forged a new life in a very tough time. In the latter part of their lives they would uproot again to the Algarve for an enhanced quality and extension of life after Grandad suffered angina attacks. Beginning all over again in a new culture, building a house in the hills, neither of them speaking the language – I now realise how much courage and spirit that takes and am in awe of them both.

Some of you will have heard me talk about wearing a ring I was given by grandma when attending births to channel her spirit and intuition. She was feisty and fun, she wrote shopping lists and swore in Greek, she loved an Ouzo, playing card games and dancing. i channel her all the time when I roast nuts her way, make tomato sauce her way and do grandmas chicken soup when a cold is hovering.

I wish she was around for me to ask more about her traditions and upbringing. How she learned about working with the moon, the spells she’d cast that I never questioned. I suspect she’s here guiding me as I uncover more about my maternal line and the power therein. After all, if she hadn’t been the free spirit she was I wouldn’t be here today…
Happy Birthday Grandma