The Williams Family
Six members of the Williams family are buried in one plot and share one fabulous gravestone at St John’ s Cemetery. Living descendant, Susan McGarry, is the voice that can be heard in the poem
’Much More than an Epitaph’.
The Williams Family
Six members of the Williams family are buried in one plot and share one fabulous gravestone at St John’ s Cemetery. Living descendant, Susan McGarry, is the voice that can be heard in the poem ’Much More than a Epitaph’.
Family Stories
by Susan McGarry
I come from a world of family stories
of previous people, places and lives,
a street of characters, flat caps, pigeon fanciers,
traction engine driving,
broad twang, engineering know-how,
smelling pungent Walker Boneyard
at dinner time,
stirring shipyard hooter signalled the start
and end of every day.
The spitting valve of a pressure cooker
resulting in hot vegetable, ham shank broth,
the feel of new Council house comfort-
parquet floor, scullery pantry,
serving hatch with garden front and back.
The sight of grass corner verges,
lampposts like milecastles
signifying how far you’d walked.
I come from being curious, finding out, listening in,
remembering, growing to love to learn
from everyone and anything.
Much More Than An Epitaph
by Donald Jenkins
There is – a stone that connects me to a place I never lived
Stories with nostalgia from a childhood that wasn’t mine
Fairy tales that were told, my eyes feel they didn’t dream
Heroes I have met who were gone before I learnt to breathe
There is – a stone more prestigious than where elites are laid to rest
A plot of grand design though its tenants were rank and file
Generations who left roots catching fish to building tanks
Family that headed north for work from shores of Penzance
There is – a stone holding many folks with hand-me-down names
Ghostly photos stuck in scrapbooks that resurrect their grins
Ancestors over centuries who must’ve lived through ups and downs
Gaps I try to fill to glue the past with here and now
High Cross Cottages
by Susan McGarry
Born in a cottage with whitewashed walls
for Armstrong workers,
as good as Cragside to us
with stepping stone chimneys
and sliding down roofs,
thin picket fences and swinging clicking gates.
Outside, a great dirt playground road
contrasting with the deep white sheets,
fresh and billowing on the washing line
after Monday’s hot, steamy Poss Tub session.
