Family Ties

My life was pretty well empty,

I hadn’t a friend to call,

Trying to make a friend was like

Hitting your head on a wall,

Most other people bored me,

Others had nothing to say,

I didn’t know how much longer I

Could go on living this way.

 

My folks had died in the autumn,

In a wreck on Highway One,

I suddenly felt like an orphan

When nobody wanted one,

My brother had gone to the tropics

My sister had gone to the west,

So there I was on my lonesome,

Just me and an old tea chest.

 

I looked at the chest in the corner,

It hadn’t been opened yet,

I didn’t know if I was ready for

The surprises I might get.

My sister had packed and sealed it,

She said she felt like a thief,

‘Don’t even think of opening it

Until you’re over your grief!’

 

It was full of our family papers,

Documents, photo’s and rings,

All the stuff that our folks had left,

Some of their favourite things,

She knew that I’d cry when I opened it,

And went through the things she’d packed,

Our family had been torn apart,

There was now no putting it back.

 

It was late on a Saturday morning,

And I had nothing to do,

I prised the lid off the old tea chest,

And took a deep breath or two,

I shut my eyes and I dived right in

Tipped all the stuff on the floor,

A thousand pics of a thousand things

That the family did before.

 

I must admit that I almost cried

When I saw my mother’s face,

Just as she’d looked when I was young

In a bonnet of Irish lace,

My father was holding me close to him

In his army uniform,

He didn’t know it would end like this

In a crash, and a firestorm.

 

All the sepia tints were there

And the studio photographs,

Each one holding a simple pose

To wait for the camera flash.

There were faces there unknown to me

From the family, way back when,

Victoria sat on the English throne

And our ‘Grands’ were living then.

 

There was one old tattered photograph

Of our Great Grandfather Jim,

Sucking away on a gnarled old pipe

And our great Grandma, Eileen.

Then I heard a noise and I looked around

To the corner, in the gloom,

Where an old man sat in a trilby hat

Smiling across the room.

 

‘Don’t be alarmed, I mean no harm,’

He said, as I went to rise,

There was something vaguely familiar

About the grey in his eyes,

‘I see you’re checking the photographs

And I thought I’d just drop in,

I keep an eye on the family ties

And you, so how have you been?’

 

I looked again at the photograph,

At the man in the trilby hat,

‘I don’t know whether I’m going mad,

Are you Great Grandad, or what?’

‘I am, I am, you got it in one,

I’m part of your family tree,

Your folks just asked if I’d pop right in,

They’re out there now, with me.’

 

‘They worry about you doing well

You’re too much on your own,

I came to give you a tip or two

To brighten your life at home.

I met Eileen in a butcher’s shop

There’s one just down at Cleve,

She watches you when you walk on by

And wears her heart on her sleeve.’

 

I knew the shop, I knew the girl,

I wanted to ask him more,

But where he’d sat in the corner there

Was a piece of empty floor.

I went for a walk, to buy some meat

And she smiled in a sweet surprise,

When I said, ‘Don’t think that I’m forward, now,

But my, you’ve got lovely eyes!’

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Tate Morgan]

That was good. While the past is kept in the memories and photos the future is,left for us to prevail Hard to imagine all those who precede us have left their hopes and dreams to us in a treasure held in a box.

[Marie]

THis what I consider a very nice ghost story...generally they aren't...

[Vincent Moore]

You are a brilliant storyteller, I am always entertained by your wonderful work David Lewis Paget. You weave a story like nobody I've met on here can.

[Ripped Denim 💜]

An utter delight to read! Where do you get your ideas? :)
...Now if only I had a Great Grandad's ghost of my own.

[Chris]

Family, history and future... how can one go wrong with those?