My great grandfather, Crompton Crompton

I have also written about my great grandfather in another post: 

Crompton Crompton, the grocer from Farrington.

 *

I see his face

framed in time by some unknown photographer’s lens

in the background of his environment then…

but standing there, perhaps thinking on the future still to be…

*I wonder, did he perceive how things would be for great grandchild me?

*

I see his face,

and…I think…a question in his eyes:

‘what purpose is there in this…another pose of mine?’

Later…did he think on the future pointing to me,

and imagine such eyes as mine…thinking on he?

*

I see his face,

and something there persuades me to stop and think…

That part of what I am has come through him,

informing me of his life with all that it contained…

was,

is,

part of the miracle that created me.

*

p.s. I have his photograph, standing, arms folded, flat cap on his head, under which his white hair flows down and around his face. My father called him, ‘foggy whiskers’. He seems a nice chap. I spent some time in 1988 looking for his grocer business in Farrington, just out of Preston. An uncle, Frank Crompton, took me to see where it was; the shop part was now included in the house. I asked the owner if he would mind me taking a look at the deeds of his house, after explaining why; but he wasn't happy about that and sadly, he declined.

Dennis Crompton © 1994

(first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)