This blog post will be slightly different, and longer, as I have already shared a lot about Robert in last years #Advent Calendar 2023 but I wanted to add some memories of him too.
On this day Robert White was born in 1918 in Hastings, Sussex, England.
In the year Robert was born, 1918, there were many significant English events: The Armistice to end the First World War was signed; the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service merged to form the Royal Air Force (which Robert served in during World War Two); the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918-1919 claimed over 228,000 lives in Britain; secondary education became compulsory for all up to 14 years and finally men over 21 and women over 30, got the right to vote.
This is what I posted last year. First is the main one
https://sussexheritage.blogspot.com/2023/12/advent-calendar-day-18.html
You can see where he fits on the family tree here in my piece of cross stitch
https://sussexheritage.blogspot.com/p/blog.html
He died in 2006, just 3 days short of his 60th wedding anniversary and five months before his 88th birthday. He might be long dead but he is never forgotten and has a place on my photo wall in the hallway. As I sit here now I have memories of when he came to stay in this house with us just as though it was yesterday. They have brought a smile to my face.
One of my favourite Christmas memories that showed so much love and I know was really appreciated was the year I made and gave that cross stitch family tree embroidery, linked above, to my parents. Funnily enought it was a memory I was retelling to a group of friends today at our sewing community group. I started, after I had been doing research in previous years, early in 2000 when I was working full time and tired most evenings. I would sit working on it in my chair in the evenings and also try and snatch time during the day when I was not at work. I had the threads colours all sorted and in a project box ready for use beside me and also had a photocopy of the pattern so that I could mark off when I had done each stitch. For the first time I learned how to use blending filaments of different colours together with the embroidery thread. The butterflies are a good example as it was a sort of shimmery blending colour that made the butterflies sparkle. I also had to learn how to make ribbon roses and incorporate into the stitches. I still have some of that blending filament and ribbons in my stash. It took over 300 hours work, each one a labour love for my parents although I knew my Mum would cry and Dad would have tears forming in his eyes when they opened it.
I couldn't just wrap it up and give it to them, it would have felt too matter of fact. So in the true "White sense of humour" I created little packets of clues for them to try and guess their present. Amongst them was a packet of Twiglets and the last one was a box of tissues....it was needed by all of us. After Christmas I took them to a local shop that arranged for the canvas to be stretched, mounted and framed with the colour mount and frame that they chose.
When Mum moved into a care home several years after Dad had died that framed embroidery went with her and she would proudly show it to the staff and visitors to her room. Alongside it she had a photoframe we did for her one year that displayed herself and Dad and some of each of my sister's family and ours. When she moved into the Nursing Home section she gave me the embrodiery because she didn't want it knocked and damaged.
It now sits on my bedroom wall where I see it every day. I also have her photoframe hanging amongst our grandchildren in our "Rogues Gallery" in the hall and in that gallery is also a photoframe that was given to my husband from his side of the family. All a very special memory of what family means to us.
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