Dinosaur is very sad.

[Falcarius]

I decided at the weekend I was going to post a entry in my blog today about how it is tenth anniversary of the death of one of my favourite Britons, whose legacy is vastly underrated. A story of the man who happened to be the son of a bricklayer, who went to night school to study to become a electronic engineer. A man who dreamed of developing all-electronic telephone exchanges across the whole of the UK.

He never really managed to convince his mangers to let him develop all-electronic telephone exchanges, they did not think he was intelligent enough as he did not study at the most prestigious universities. Little did his mangers know he was responsible for designing and making the most important computer ever; a computer that cut short the Second World War, a computer that saved thousands of lives, a computer that could easier decipher the Lorenz teleprinter codes used by Nazi generals.

It was not just his mangers for the telephone service, even the British government underestimated him, they did not totally believe him when he told them he could make a code braking computer to crack any Nazi codes. He was told by the government to make it by himself using his own funds for the project.

Yes, that is the story of Tommy Flowers.





Instead Falcarius is sad because his aunty died. Looks like I am going to a funeral on Guy Fawkes Night.

 

[heart]

Sorry about your loss.

 

[cascadeco]

Sorry. Take care!

 

[INTJMom]

I read the wiki on Tommy Flowers. What a hero!

I'm sorry about your aunt.
Were you very close with her?
What was she like?

 

[Falcarius]

to you three all as well.



To answer your questions INTJMom;

My parents and my mother's sister recently had not as close as they once were but they were close. In short my mothers been quite ill, she has mental heath problems, so that has been taking priority, therefore, my mother and her sister drifted apart in the last five or so years. They both seem to have lost each others contact information. My parents knew my aunt was ill but did not even know see was dying.

She was a artist and she ran an art school with her husband. She was well regarded in the world of embroidery or so I hear. My parents own a few pieces of her embroidery, but they are mostly stored away as my parents own a gallery worth of art, they inherited from my grandfather who was a avid collector of art. He would buy paintings from the art students at the university he worked at as a lecturer of architecture.



A short bio from her art school web site, and a transcript of a interview she did a while a go.

I don't know whoever wrote this, this, this, this, and this in their blogs but it made me smile and my heart tingle.

It's only right that I leave a picture or two of her work:

 

[Falcarius]

As I said above it was my aunt's funeral today. I spent the best part of yesterday trying to think what would be best to wear. I must have spent nearly an hour trying to some trousers that would fit me. Clothing manufacturers do not seem to realise that some people are skinny and have a bigger leg length than their chest size. I also did not know what to wear because my aunt especially requested everyone to wear some sort of strong colour. I did not really want to stand out too much and wear my really bright orange sweater. I ended up wearing a green shirt, sky blue sweater, and black everything else.

I was surprised I was not sick on the way, I normally get travel sickness badly, as I don't go on any car journeys hardly ever. We arrived in London at just the right time, as the funeral started about ten or so minutes after we got to the church. Just as we took our seats in the church my dad told me I should hide my ear phones of my MP3 player away, so I whispered to him about how the reverend should hide the wires to his microphone, in that case, as it is only fair.

As it was an Anglican funeral, there was obviously hymns, prayers, and the like. At the start of the service the reverend said how he knew my aunt for over 30 years, how people came from abroad who were not even related to my aunt, and also he said we all could be blessed instead of taking part in the communion. In the end, only a few people including me and my sister did not take part in the Eucharist tradition of bread and wine were blessed instead. Me and my sister declined it because we could not be sure the wine was vegetarian, and I think a few others because they are .

I learnt two things during my uncle's eulogy to his wife; The first that his chat up line was '' Hello, is your name Julia? '', apparently my aunty always used to hang out with some other girl, so he did not know whose name was whose. The other thing I learnt was the fact that my grandfather did not my uncle marry my aunty for five years. Eventually, my grandfather gave in and let them both marry when she turned twenty one years old. So that's where my stubbornness comes from.

I find it strange that in western culture families only tend to get together all under one roof at events like funerals. I met a few distant cousins, who I can not ever remember meeting before, and my parents also met some old friend they have not met for ages, some of the as long ago as when the move from London to Oxford, thirty odd years ago. Oh, that guy who shook my hand at the end of the service, who was most probably related to me distantly, totally squashed my hand.

I chose not to go to the committal at the crematorium, the last time I went to one I broke down (I think it was my grandfathers), so I went to the reception with non-family members. My parents went in the reverend's car, which I know because dad told me when he was telling me how the reverend studied at an Anglican theological college in a village just outside of Oxford.

After my family came back they joined everyone else at the reception. We had food and a toast to my aunt, but for the very same reasons I did not do the Eucharist, I also did not do a toast with a glass of champagne. We sat at the back of the church hall. I looked at some of my Aunt's embroidery. My mother also told us some stories from when her and her sister were younger. I then went over and picked up a photo album that was next to the book of condolence at the front of the church hall. I brought it to our table and we look though it.







One would not know by looking at the pictures she had cancer more than half her life: she got breast cancer when she was in her early 30's and died of a different asbestos related lung cancer in her late 60's.



Another bigger piece of her embroidery.

 

[INTJMom]

 

[colmena]

Sorry for your loss, Mr. Dinosaur. I love the artwork. I'm so fond of the colours. No doubt she was just as warm and beautiful.