|
Our family has lived in Gibraltar for several generations, arriving from England in the late 19th or early 20th century. My father Albert Tacon,(followed a few years later by his sister Muriel) was born in Romford in Essex in 1941, due to an evacuation procedure in Gibraltar during World War II. His mother, Concha, was Spanish and met my wonderful grandfather, William, as he patrolled the frontier between Spain and Gibraltar. Concha, who I never met, but am told I am very much a like to, experienced both the traumas of the Franco Civil War in Spain and the bombings in London during the Blitz. This was where my father was born and it wasn't until several years later that he and his mother, and his aunt Victoria Tacon, returned to our Rock where they were reunited with William, my grandfather.
Until then they had been strangers, seperated due to the war
but they were to build a strong friendship over the years. My grandmother, I am told, was a strong, determined and wonderfully caring lady and a mother to admire. She died in the early seventies before I was born aged 53 I believe. It is funny how you can miss some one you have never met.
In 1975 my father married my mother Maria Johanna Berens (Marjo - Mar yo ) a beautiful dutch girl. They met in Germany where she was working as a headmistress due to lack of jobs in Holland and he because he was a teacher in the armed forces, stationed in RAF Laarbruch. The pictures of them in flares, dark coloured brown shirts and floral materials depict wonderfully how they fell for each other, that sparkle in the eyes....
In 1977 on the eve of their first wedding anniversary, I their first daughter and child was born, in Goch (then West) Germany. In 1979, my little brother Wesley was born, a delight to us all, infact my first ever memory is of when he was born - he must be special!
We lived very happily in a German village, Pfalzdorf, until 1985 when my father applied and was accepted for a Special Needs post in Gibraltar. We moved there to be close to my grandfather William. He was always so selfless and giving it is still hard not to miss him.
Now, we all live there happily, my mother now working in real-estate and my father as a Special Needs teacher. My brother and myself attend university, he in Wales and myself in England.
I know though that with a family such as ours and a home such as Gibraltar that we will find our way home - where our hearts are.
|
