Found after 40 years of heartache

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Last night my mother called me to her study room. I found her crying and I knew why. Right in front of her in her email, a kind woman was able to confirm that a grave in Richmond & East Sheen Cemetery, in London, belongs to my grandpa.

I cried too as we've finally found him after 40 years.

My mum lost her father when she was 8.

In, 1970, they were in Malaysia when her father had to return to the UK to receive medical treatment. He reluctantly left my mother and my grandma (my mum's mother), and remained in UK for a long time. During his stay in England, he had both of his legs amputated.

In 1972, he passed on. No one told my mother or my grandma of my grandpa's passing but my mother knew it in her heart he had passed on. However she had not shed a tear because she could not find it in her heart to cry. It became an unsettling thing in her heart for many years.

Only recently when my mother started typing in my Grandpa's name on the internet, his name came up as the first link on Google. She emailed this kind lady, Ann Roberts, to help her confirm if the grave information in the first link did belong to my grandpa.

My mother exchanged emails with Ann Roberts about my Grandpa and shortly, the lady replied with the email that got my mother to cry for the first time after 40 years for my Grandpa. The Grave did belong to him. Most of his records were destroyed seven years after death but they had a card remaining. The lady gave the card's details in the email and whatever was on the card was right.

His name was Broomfield, Thomas Herbert Ernest.
He was born in 26 December, 1916 and was in the Royal Engineers.

There are more details of my Grandpa's health and dates of admission, discharge, and burial, and all matched up to the timings.

So for the first time in 40 years, my mother cried for my Grandpa.

She told me that no one has no idea how she felt. It was like she has finally found him, even though he has passed on. It has become such a relief to her that she can finally go and pay her respects to him, as the Daughter of Thomas Herbert Ernest Broomfield.

I cried too because I've heard so many wonderful stories of him and I never got to know him. My mum said he was the kindest gentleman she has ever known and she missed so dearly and greatly. To see my mother cry, my heart just fell to pieces. My mother had gone through so much hardship when her father left and during those times, life can be cruel. Now, today, my mother has always held her head high and has her own business that runs smoothly and successful.

You have no idea how proud I am of my mother and how much I miss my grandpa. Communication then, when they got separated, was very difficult. The pain of not knowing where your father is or whether he is really dead even though you know he is, was just immense to my mother. And yet she could not find it in her heart to cry without knowing.

Now, to my mother, she can finally close the chapter in her storybook that has been left open and missing with so much heartache. She can finally cry knowing that her father is resting and she can go and pay her respects and love to him.

And you know what is the wonderful thing? My grandpa was British and he married my grandma (who had also passed on a few months before my birth) who was a Malaysian Chinese.

Both did not speak a word of each other's language and yet their love conversed and soared. They were so loving and that was how my mother came.

So yes, the emails exchanged was a miracle at work and last night was a miracle that happened. After 40 years of searching and not knowing, my mother can finally rest knowing where Grandpa is.

As for me, I can also be able to pay my respects as the Granddaughter of Thomas Herbert Ernest Broomfield.

And if my Grandpa can hear me, "I love you Grandpa and I miss you, just like how mummy misses you."

//Featurettee//Enjoy




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