By Deirdre Godwin, Program Assistant, Professional Development and Training, Faculties of Health and Human Services & Trades and Applied Technology, VIU

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do learn from it are privileged to repeat it.

As for me, these days, I am revelling in the joys of play, first learned in my own childhood, rediscovered as my nieces and nephews were growing up, and now discovered yet again through my two great-nephews and two great-nieces

My second oldest nephew, his wife, and their two sons, aged two years and seven months respectively, were visiting recently. I made Welsh Cakes to serve with tea. This recipe was handed down to me via my mother, her mother, and my grandfather’s half-sister. Where Clara got the recipe I do not know, but it dates back to a time when Welsh housewives had no ovens but did their baking on bake-stones heated by an open fire. My nephew is interested in heritage recipes, and he collects – and eats – them as enthusiastically as I do. From the reaction of Roman, my older great-nephew, the appreciation is passing along to yet another generation. He went from requesting, “Cookie” to requesting “Wlsh Ck” in the space of an afternoon.

I spent most of the visit entertaining and being entertained by my great-nephews. I played rhyming games that date back to well before my own childhood. I sang old British folksongs, accompanying myself on my electronic keyboard, which can be set to sound like a harp. (The juxtaposition of this is a delicious as the Welsh Cakes.) Some of these songs were sung to me by my father, who learned them from his own parents and grandparents, others I have discovered from books in my own explorations of the past. I told the boys stories, some of them from written sources, some of them family tales passed down from earlier generations. Both of them seemed to enjoy this. Roman is becoming very verbal. He was quick to request, “Mo’!” whenever I finished a song or story. It is a joy to watch him and his brother, Atticus, absorb things so readily.

I love this continuity, the joy of passing along traditions and heritage to a new generation. These small people will never know my grandparents, but they will hear their songs and stories and taste the same sort of foods. They will see family pictures and family treasures and ask a thousand questions I hope I’ll be able to answer.

My great-nieces and great-nephews will, I hope and believe, learn things that are yet undreamed. I hope they will learn the old ways, too, so that they can be privileged to repeat and pass on history as I have done and do.