For the past several years, I have waited expectantly for the first card of the season.
This year I was wondering if an annual event would not be repeated.
But true to form, JOHN HARPER-NELSON, the oldest living member of our family, came through once more, bless him, with the brief message, ‘still alive.’
If you would like his address, let me know.
musicmusicandwords 
Dear Neil,
I am the Neil who lives in Chelsea ! I would be grateful if you could let me have John’s contact details as I lost them on my last mobile phone change! Anyway, it would good to keep in touch with John and his family. I hope that you and your family have a happy Christmas and New Year!
Best wishes,
Neil MacCormick
Dear Neil, I would love to have a conversation with you about some of your family! My parents were married in 1947 and started their marriage life in digs with “Aunt Anna” in the family home in Stepps. There were stories of them canvassing for the Covenant Association in lieu of rent when things were a bit tight! I have a copy of a beautiful book of songs written by Somerled Macmillan, dedicated to my dad by the composer, in thanks for the work that they did. My parents eventually moved to Helensburgh and started a family. Then Anna & Allie moved to Helensburgh too and at the age of 4 I started having piano lessons with Anna. These two wonderful human beings became a big part of my life. I would play Scrabble with Allie – i rarely won! – and Anna would make us the most delicious tablet and other sweetmeats. She would babysit for me & my brother and tell us the most amazing bedtime stories which she made up on the spot. Utterly spellbinding! I went on to become a professional opera singer and was honoured to be given all of Anna’s Kennedy Fraser songbooks which I use to this very day. I also was given Allie’s copy of The Complete Works of Robert Burns. When I married myself, Allie was long gone and Anna was too frail to come to the wedding. We went to visit her in East Kilbride and sang to her. By this stage, her hearing was all to pot and she couldn’t really hear the upper frequencies. She said to my husband, a professional tenor “I know it’s beautiful from the way you move and breathe but it just sounds like a noise to me!”The last time I saw her before she died was when she came down to Helensburgh for tea, driven by a friend of hers, a Dr. Watson, so that she could give us our wedding present. I have really loved reading a lot of your family history. She would tell us wonderful anecdotes. The author Neil Gunn was visiting them in Mull and had come to dinner. At the end of the meal he stood up declaring that the meal was marvellous and proceeded to throw his napkin on the fire. Trouble was, it was one of her mother’s finest linen serviettes, brought out on special occasions only and not a disposable paper one. They all just sat and watched it burn! Anyway, I’ve taken up enough of your time. S x