The
Stocks and Nashes
Let's start at the beginning, our beginning.
On the right are Mum and Dad Stock, Ian's parents, in their back garden in
Marlow, around 1979. There's another of the two of them
here,
around 1976.
None of our children knew Dad, who passed away at
the age of 58 in 1983, and
only the older children knew Mum all too briefly. She passed away at the age of
69 in 1996.
Below are Mum and Dad Stock, Sue and Ian during their first
Italian vacation near Venice, July 1967.
Mum had always wanted to visit Venice with us, and return to Venice Lido where
she had been billeted during the war. Not a bad posting, you may note!
Sue became Sue Nash in 1975 when she married Derek. There are shots of the Nashes below, and at Antony and Courtney's
wedding.
Summer holidays were a big deal for the Stocks. Dad was careful with his
money, as befitted someone raised in wartime and in post-war England, but summer
holidays and Christmas were times to let that caution slide just a little.
The summer of 1966, we took the sleeper train up to Scotland. Behind us in
the photo below
is Loch Lomond. Another dream vacation.
We walked up Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK, or at least Sue and Ian
walked up it while mum and dad waited on a blanket about half way up. We saw the
Isle of Skye for the first time, and all the beauty of Northern Scotland, and
the sun shone almost all the time. If you knew the UK climate, you'd know how
special that sun was.
Cath and Jim Stock were married for over 34 years, until dad left us in
1983.
Sue and Derek Nash celebrated 33 years of marriage in
2008, to each other!
There's a reassuring consistency about both families.
On the left, here we are at a pub near Marlow
in August 1996. It was not long after mum's funeral. We have enough Irish in the
blood (Grandma was 100% Irish) to feel both sides of a wake. Antony, below with
his mum at home in Foster City, must have taken the photo.
All seven of us (Alex was not yet
born) are in the photo, with Laura, Sue and Derek
Nash.
The Nashes lived in Foster City California for 12 or 13 years, until Antony
moved to San Diego to take a great job. Sue and Derek promptly moved about
a mile away from him! But they've moved on since, and are now back in
Marlow.
And below left is one of the Nashes in Paris. Derek must have taken this one of his family, including Courtney
who dated Antony for years before marrying him in 2003, on Place de la Concorde in Paris in late 1994.
Marie-Hélène, Ian,
Charlie and Alex visited Antony and Courtney in
San Diego for Charlie's birthday in 2005. A bit of a rough year, 2005, but you
can see the good news in the below picture of the newlyweds (relatively!) on the
roof of their home!
And sure enough, in October 2005, along came Avalon, who is the
first Stock and Nash grandchild, and who would have been the first
great-grandchild if her great-grandparents had survived, and who is in
any event seriously cute.
Here she is, at San Diego Zoo in March 2007. The circle turns.
