082 - Chapter 82

(Illustration: The wounded soldier)

Towards the close of 2014 our family had another happy event. Our sixth grandchild, Jack Stephen Hamil, our little ‘Last, but not least’ was born. Here is the song with that title, that I wrote for him.

Last but not least

‘ . . . Friday's child is loving and giving’

‘Last, but not least’, child full of grace,

Air of contentment; cute little face.

May you be strapping*, and may you be wise.

And ‘loving and giving’, our Friday’s child.

As yet you don’t know how lucky you are,

Your parents are priceless; your brother’s a star.

But I’d like to add they are blessed too

To have such a littl’un, as perfect as you.

Come let me dandle you here on me knee

We all want our turn, the whole family

You mean so much to us; now that you’re here,

and we’ll all be there for you, no need to fear

So now as I sing you this sweet lullaby

‘Last, but not least’, I can see why

You are so special you’re our pride and joy

You are God’s gift to us, our baby boy

“Come me little Jacky,

noo I’ve had me baccy,

come let’s have some cracky

Our bonnie boy

© Sheila Hamil May 21st 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n4ps6p46J0

Jack Stephen Hamil was born to Peter and Amanda, their second son, weighing 8lbs 8 oz, at the RVI, Newcastle just after midday in November 2014. Jack was his great grandfather’s name, but his middle name, Stephen, was given with Amanda’s dad Steve, and his Uncle ‘Stevo’, in mind.

Whereas Daniel inherited Peter’s ability in sport, Jack inherited his mischievousness; his ‘let’s push the boundaries’ attitude, but was so lovable with it, just like Peter.

Daniel, Jack’s older brother, was always very patient with him, and never seemed to retaliate when Jack, as a toddler, pushed his luck, or got over enthusiastic in rough and tumbles or when he played crazy tricks on him. Having said this Daniel knows exactly how to light Jack’s touch paper! A typical big brother.

Jack is very bright, his memory is excellent, and he has always been especially good at mathematics, mental arithmetic and tables. When he started school, he was shocked to be doing sums such as 2+3=5, when he was already doing maths in hundreds, thousands, trillions and even ‘gazillions’! 

One of the things he and I love doing together at present in 2023, is writing long stories; he dictates, and I write down at speed; in other words, he is the narrator and I’m the scriptwriter, this way we capture his fantastic imagination.

Jack has always asked ‘Big Questions’ right from an early age, more so than any of our other grandchildren. If these questions happen to be about religion, Amanda sends him to me!

He often puts Alexa (the internet’s voice-controlled virtual assistant) to the test with his queries, and even she finds his questions difficult to answer!

All this is to his benefit of course, after all if you don’t ask questions, you’ll never learn.

Hence, Jack is growing into a confident, self-assured boy, and I reckon he’s going to be big and strong. So he should be, he has a really good appetite. He gives my cooking scores out of ten; but he especially loves what I call my ‘beggar’s broth’ a name I made up from a well-known story about a group of beggars who each choose not to put into the cooking pot the food they’ve collected in the market place, and who end up with a pot of boiling water for supper instead, simply because they’ve kept their own scraps for themselves to eat later.

One thing that really terrifies me about Jack though is his fearlessness, especially in a skatepark. We were asked to take him, and his brother to one once and found that they had brought no protective gear with them, and we vowed never again! My palpitations and probably my blood pressure, went sky high as Jack drove his scooter over the top of the vertical drops. I left the oversight to Bob, as I refused to watch anymore! We insisted Jack wore a helmet next time if he wanted us to accompany him again, and one was bought for him which had a plastic Mohican haircut, much like his own hair at the time! I’m not quite sure how he got that helmet to fit!

He has interesting scars under his chin as a result of all his antics. (see the illustration) He's also fearless when he swims and dives, and he loves climbing. He’s like a little monkey the minute he sees poles, fences, trees as well as climbing frames. He’s even fearless when it comes to animals too. He loves to dig up worms and insects, and look for tadpoles, terrapins and the like in the country park near us, and he examines them all closely, even the odd hedgehog. This probably stems from a neighbour of theirs who has a ‘menagerie’ of animals in her garden, and he loves to be in there, petting her dogs and feeding her chickens. When we’re out walking, he’ll think nothing of saying to passing dog-owners, “Can I stroke your dog please?” And he sensibly waits for an answer. Dogs seem to love him.

When I think of Jack, a well-known nursery rhyme springs to mind;

What are little boys made of?

‘Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails,

that’s what little boys are made of!’

He also has a great sense of humour. When Bob and Peter took Jack to his first football match, a cup match at St James’ Park, Newcastle, along with Daniel, Jack was fascinated by the crowd chanting.

They say a person never forgets their first game!

The ground was packed, and Peter had warned him that the supporters might sing songs that mustn’t be repeated! Then when there was a lull in the game and all went quiet, a little voice, Jack's, shouted out at the top of his voice:-”TOON TOON!”

and all the supporters shouted back as one, “BLACK AND WHITE ARMY.’ Then the chanting erupted all over again.

Jack is also extremely loving and kind. He once spent his money buying food from a bakery, for a man sitting looking forlorn in a doorway on his own, and he took the food and drink to him himself. On another occasion, when the schoolteacher asked children in Jack’s class if they could bring in a coin for a needy cause, the school sent a text to Peter and Amanda, the content of which was a surprise; it read:

‘Jack has brought £11 into school to donate to the Turkish earthquake. It is really kind of him and we have praised his generosity.’ 

He had been given one pound to take into school, but had also taken money from his own savings to put in the collection.

I always say I’m always more proud when I hear of our grandchildren being kind, than I am with their academic or sporting prowess. Long may it last.

 This Friday’s child is certainly ‘loving and giving’!

We love you Jack, alongside all the others.

You’re the last grandchild, but not the least.’