Robin Ford, March 2020

At a larger-than-usual family Christmas gathering one year I wrote a song telling of our shared history.

On a subsequent larger gathering I added extra verses to it, a tradition that I have maintained ever since. Following a suggestion, I have written an extra couple of verses about the Covid – 19 situation. To set the scene I have included below the first two verses that I wrote, then the two new ones.

From Castlecrag beginnings

It started out at Castlecrag, four Christmas cousins in a bunch.
With style and grace,
At Grandma’s place,
We all sat down for Christmas lunch.
Three decades on,
The house is gone,
And four more surnames now appear.
There’s Marynissen, Williams, Waites and Wills, plus Ford and Furness here.

No more does Dot provide the ham, no more, today, does Phyl preside.
New cousins’ eyes
Share Christmas skies;
New generation leads the ride.
The style is new,
Who are the crew?
Let’s call the roll, who will appear?
There’s Marynissen, Williams, Waites and Wills, and Ford and Furness here.

Though Castlecrag is much the same, the world we knew is upside down.
Stick to the task
Is what they ask
In city, village, farm and town.
The work we do
Needs patience too
And wisdom, courage, truth and skill.
There’s future scope
For joy and hope
And walking over dale and hill.

The global cousins play their part – Pandemics mean it must be so.
And those who wait
And hibernate
Will contribute more than they know.
We’ll hold our nerve;
Constrain the curve
And break the bug’s infection chain.
So on we’ll press
To our success
When we’ll be free to roam again.