Merry Christmas, George Sterry

And so to a man - a great-great-great-grandfather of mine - who passed away at Christmas time in 1901.  Edward VII has been on the throne for less than a year; Parliament passes the Factory and Workshop Act, raising the minimum working age to 12; and Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal, sent from from Poldhu in Cornwall to Newfoundland.  It is 23 December, and in Gloucester, George Sterry, a shoemaker, is rushing around to get his affairs in order before settling down for the festivities.  He leaves his home and workshop on Tredworth High Street, rushing in the cold weather, to Pembroke Street, where he will collect some shoes in need of mending.  The Gloucester Citizen tells the rest of the tale (click the story to enlarge):

It must have been a terribly sad Christmas for the remaining family, particularly for George's wife Ann (his second wife, to whom he married in 1893) and for his children - Elizabeth, Fanny, George, Edward, and Amelia Kate, my great-great grandmother, who lived close by in Gloucester.  No record of George's burial can be found - presumably he was laid to rest after Christmas Day, but whether this was before or after the New Year is unknown.

Jefferson David Chalfant's The Shoemaker

There have been 115 Christmas Days since George passed away.  115 times that family have swapped presents under the tree; 115 gatherings around the Christmas dinner table; 115 moments that we as descendants may have looked up to the heavens, our hearts full of remembrance, and whispered into the cold night air, Merry Christmas, George Sterry.