In less than a week I will be heading to Scotland for my
last genealogy tour. The emotions are bittersweet. I have been so incredibly
blessed by the trust of my tour participants. I have been so humbled by their
joy, their tears, their surprising discoveries. Many tour participants became
repeat offenders and still others became friends. Friends to me but more
importantly friends to each other. Some really amazing, lasting friendships
have occurred on these tours, and I am so thrilled to have had some small part
in bringing those kindred spirits together.
Knowing I am not likely to get back to Scotland for a while
is also bittersweet and I fear that the next visit may be for a funeral rather
than for a catchup with family. Out of the original 21 living children of my
grandfather, only 7 remain. They lived the memories I grew up surrounded by. I
know that those memories will live on through my family history but seeing the
joy in their faces as they recount them will be forever vanished. And that
saddens me more than words can describe.
I will be in Edinburgh for four days then over to Glasgow
for a week. Then I will be spending four days in Dublin before I head back to
Canada. I was supposed to go to Dublin back in 2020 before the world changed.
As always, I will be blogging while I am traveling. You can follow along if you
would like.
And if you are enjoying the virtual journey, you might
consider buying me a coffee. See the widget on the right hand side of the page.
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