Family history

 

 A random photo.  It was taken 50 odd years ago.  Myself and my daughter by the pool at Es Planches in Blonay.   At the time I am  happily married to Nick before the terrible crash that took his life a couple of years later.  Our daughter Karen in the photo is still a baby.

The car crash robbed me of a much loved husband, a father for Karen and the youngest son of Con and Lotta Opper.   Of course such things happen to many people but it has a profound effect individually.  

It is something I never talk about, the grief at the time was unbearable.  Nick had called in at Oxford to meet an old friend, David Double and was driving back home, which was Woking in Surrey at that time.

After the car crash. Down to a foolish women pulling out without looking to see if there was any one coming, Nick was taken to a Nottingham hospital.  Con and Lotta came over immediately and for a fortnight till his death, he was unconscious, the prognosis was that he would have probably been confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.  I remember Lotta saying that perhaps his death was the best outcome for him, for me that was impossible, but death settled the matter.

His death hung over the family for years, his three siblings, all older were also traumatised as well.  Annabel his sister would  have often take on a mothering role and visited him when he was at  school or later at Oxford, taking him out for a meal.  For, like most families that worked overseas all the children were educated in England at boarding schools.

The Swiss connection for my family has always been strong, each year my daughter, Karen and I  would spend  a summer month in Switzerland, Con always good with both Karen and Marc, Annabel's boy, would keep us all entertained whilst Lotta would keep the peace with two youngsters rushing around.

A rundown of those people in the photo.  From the left, a lady from one of those minor Eastern European countries (it will come to me).  Next Lotta, then Florine Katz (Karen's godmother) from America.  Sylvia in the centre.  Then Florine's husband Eugene.  Next Annabel with Marc's friend.  The three below are Marc, Karen and me.

There is a fourth sibling but as Michael lived in Canada we did not see much of him.  He had become a boxer at one stage than a lumberjack working in the forest.  He had married Sharon, daughter of a newspaper owner, and sad to say addicted somewhat to drugs.  She was to go off to India to follow one of the gurus that were in fashion at the time.  It also happened in our family as well,  this time my cousin.  The Beatles had a lot to answer for....

What funny photos we take of ourselves, the one above is surely taken by Marc and he is messing around making us cross!

Marc had been brought up in Iran on an oil camp in the desert, so he was a bit rough with his younger cousin Karen.  With his farming friend they would wander around with a knife and air gun.  I cannot but look at a picture of him now, overweight and a successful business behind him and giggle at the transformation.

Marc had an impetuous nature as a boy.  Once while sitting at a Swiss restaurant he put his hand on the hot plate in the centre of the table and burnt his hand badly.  He would push through crowds without thinking and there would be a lot of crossness at his behaviour and us apologising as  we followed him behind.

This is for my grandchildren, especially Lillie, who bought me a book to record my history with the Opper family.  Mostly I think photos tell a better story than words.

At Gruyere, a family annual photo capture. at the same spot See below

Canadian side of the family in snowy Switzerland rather than Canada