Remembering my great aunt Wendy

One year on from my great aunt's death I am sharing a piece I wrote on the way home from her memorial.

Today my mum and I said a final goodbye to my great aunt, who was 99. 

It's incredible to think of what she experienced... World War, the dawn of the digital age, surviving malaria and whooping cough, a short stint as a cigarette model and recently, together, we managed to track down her first boyfriend using the internet!

She was born in the shadow of WW1, served in the navy during WW2 and lived through the Cold War. Today we see increasing instability around the globe, 100 years after she was born.

She experienced drastic transformation from written letters to instant messaging, from carriages to electric cars, with technology changing how we work, live and connect. Thanks to the power of the internet, in her final weeks I could organise a personalised video from her ultimate crush Alexander Armstrong (Pointless) right to her room on a phone screen.

During her lifetime was the creation and dismantling of apartheid in South Africa, the Civil Rights movement, seismic shifts in how women and queer people can live their lives with opportunity and pride, the evolution of music - from jazz and rock n roll to electronic - and medical advances like vaccines and antibiotics.

She saw so much monumental change and we're losing a wealth of generational knowledge. But in her memory we can remind ourselves of the importance of connecting across generations - sharing knowledge and friendship across age groups - and remember that all liberation comes off the back of those that went before.

Today, during Pride month - which has and always will be a Protest - I am reflecting that I'm only able to live my life out and proud because of the bravery of others.

For me personally, I'll always remember her as my aunt who loved and respected nature in the purest way, had a sense of humour until the end, and who was completely in love with the presenter off Pointless... 🌷