Generational change

This morning, after my wound clinic visit, I walked to the nearby offices of Stone and Ham funeral directors to meet a bereaved family and discuss the service I'm to take on Monday next for a ninety year old local lady who was the mother of eight children, sixteen grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. It's interesting to consider the contrast between her and another nonagenarian widow whose funeral I have this week, with just two children and two grandchildren, who started a working life in the family firm at the end of World War two. 

Theirs was a generation when women still had a choice of making a life as home makers and having a large family, or having a family and seeking work only after the essential child rearing years are over. Today it seems to be an economic necessity for husband and wife to work and fit having and raising children into work oriented lives, supported by parents and daytime care. The question of whether this works satisfactorily and is beneficial in terms of health and well being in the long term is to my mind an open question which may take generations to answer. Was there ever such a time when so many people suffer burnout, work related stress or mental health concerns? So many people today are under so much pressure to be productive on several fronts, it takes its toll.

Late afternoon, when the rain had cleared up, I went into town to take photos of the demolition of St David's House, and of the newly restored clock tower of the railway station. Recently, I read a news article about this, pointing out a modest new feature on the facade overlooking Central Square. It's a tiny 'Draig Goch', our Welsh national symbol, fashioned from lead left over from weather cladding the tower with traditional lead. It's tiny, but no doubt generations of telephoto lenses will pick it out, as a special feature of our new public open space, as mine did.