Margaret Irvine has just written to say that she has another grandson. She wrote:
Rhonda Irvine and her partner Damian had their second son on September 1.
His name is Charlie Ismael De La O (somewhat exotic for this Pacific Celt family) and he is, of course, just wonderful.
And news on another front: several months ago I received an email from Jack (John) Scragg. This was a name I remembered from my childhood - he had been (unofficially?) adopted by one of my grandfather's sisters and her husband. Jack had lived through the Napier earthquake, and subsequently had come south because his mother and my great aunt were friends. How things worked out from there, I'm not entirely sure.
I spoke to Jack on the phone several times: we were going to meet up (he lived in Waikouaiti - in Otago) but there was often a health issue on his side (he had cancer) or some complication on ours. Regrettably we never got to meet face to face and late last month we saw his death notice in the paper. He sounded like a great bloke, and was very friendly. RIP, John....
