Being the fourth child of a family, I’m pretty used to the idea that there is no photo record of my existence until I’m about 15. [Insert melodic violin music] My parents weren’t great photo takers, or so I thought. This was until I realised we had reams and reams of diapositivas or photo slides. My sister recently purchased a scanner which has allowed us to upload some of the photos to 21st century technology. It’s been one of the most amazing family journeys I’ve ever been on.
Seeing the old photos of family time before I was around feels like entering a time machine and being given a ’Christmas Carol’ opportunity (but without the need for all the bah-humbugging). Of course I’d seen photos of the family before, and without even realising, I’d imagined my own family world centred around these snaps. Seeing Mum with her 70s gear on, being a young Mum with young children opened up a whole new chapter of our families’ story.
Mum and Dad and my siblings all lived in Spain for six years and I’d never really pictured that life as anything but an extended holiday, so I relished the opportunity to peer in on the family celebrating all the young birthdays with ‘Felicidades’ instead of ‘congratulations’ on the cakes.
Mum had three children under 4 in Spain, it wasn’t until they returned to Ireland that they had me (their Irish sprog). There’s even photos of that too. The photo above is of my Christening, by far the earliest photo of me I’ve ever seen.
It’s amazing as now with the digital age all our family photos are so accessible, and easy to share. There’s something to be said for putting the work in before getting a treat like these old slides!
Mum believed in a pretty laid back approach to parenting. I can’t remember her ever really giving out much. Inevitably, I was duty bound by my adolescence to push the boundaries on occasion and have to be told off. Mum used the ‘dissapointment’ card to great effect. She would never say she was angry or annoyed …just disappointed. It was always the worst thing to hear. I would have way preferred an over-reactive barrage of words about what I’d done wrong, that I could have shrugged off as parental misunderstandings of Generation X!
One of the things that most impressed me about my Mum was her strength of character. Mum faced a lot of adversity in her life but always maintained a strong family unit for my siblings and I. It was after my Mum finally separated from my Dad that her true character was allowed to shine. Mum found her 
As all of us grew up we all lived abroad for a while. One of my brothers spent 10 years in the States. Mum used to take visits out to see him on a regular basis.
