MEMOIR

My Grandfather Was Famous in a Suspendery Sort of Way

A memoir episode

I’m quite proud of my grandfather. Image by master1305 on Freepik

[Previous extracts are somewhere else.]

Now seems a good time to introduce the ancestors. I have a feeling there should be a way to segway into this. And yes, I know it is really segue, but for years, I didn’t.

I obviously managed to avoid all books containing the word segue until I was [AGE REDACTED¹].

I looked up this strange new word in a dictionary and was surprised to find that segue, which I pronounced “seeg” in my head, meant to move without stopping from one topic, song, etc., to another.

I wondered why the author hadn’t used the more common segway. Until I spotted /ˈseɡ.weɪ/. And the truth dawned.

I bet my paternal grandmother would have known how to pronounce segue. I never met her but I used to look a bit like her if I reference the only photograph that exists.

Photo of a photo. Taken by me.

That’s my grandfather, Harry, by her side. I’ve just taken it down to see if there’s a date on the back or any hint as to why they look as if they aren’t speaking to each other, but I’ve found only these…