Last update: 15th February, 2019
| Home | Mail Hal - Site Map |
IntroductionWhen my father realised that he was dying he decided to write down for his family something of his life, as no individual one of us knew all of it. I sat with him and took notes, which I eventually passed on to his priest to use as source material for the eulogy at his funeral. The problem was that while my dad wasn't particularly old, he still couldn't remember everything with as much detail as he'd like. The passage of time had made him forget some things entirely and remember others with less vividness. I've already found the same thing myself. Both times I toured North America, in 1999 and in 2000, I took notes and planned to write up the trips as travelogues. I did so both times, as North American Tour '99 and Millennium Roadtrip, but never finished either because persistent delays on my behalf meant that I couldn't remember later events on the tours with as much detail as I'd already written about for the earlier times. I could still write those pieces but not with the same detail and so all consistency would be lost. In fact while my sister, only two years younger than me, can recall vividly life when we were toddlers, I can't remember much at all from before I was about ten. The memories are there, but they're blurred. Maybe it's time for me to write my own notes down so that I can look back at details and in time others can too. I started with Names in the Mist. Christmas Letters
Christmas 2004 Norman F. Astell
Norman F. Astell and the Raiding Support Regiment Michael H. N. Astell
Autobiography Hal C. F. Astell |
Last update: 15th February, 2019