All Steve's People - Steve 1963

family/son, husband & father

A rough sea, a low sky, and the bridge to Hayling Island set the tone for my conversation with Steve — a story about what truly holds a life together. As we talk, he takes me back to a Portsmouth childhood framed by open doors, tight streets, and the hard memory of standing between warring parents. His mum’s grit — three jobs, empty cupboards, and not a hint of self‑pity — becomes the moral baseline he’s carried ever since: show up, work hard, do right.

Family, for Steve, arrives in unexpected shapes. Ray never married his mum, yet lived as “grandad” if not in Steve’s eyes, then certainly in the eyes of Steve’s children. Then there’s Bob, the father‑in‑law who modelled what a good dad looks like: honour, steadiness, and unfussy generosity. The day Bob introduced him as “my son” rewired something deep — a simple phrase that offered a sense of belonging and a standard to live by.

Threaded through it all is Julie, the girl he walked home from a school disco just before they turned fourteen. Together, Steve and Julie build a family business in financial planning and later wills and trusts — a partnership shaped by graft, loyalty, and a shared instinct to look after people properly. Enter Jasmine (Jazz), the daughter who earns every step, surpasses them in qualifications, and eventually becomes the mentor. When a seizure forces Steve out of the driver’s seat, clients love Jazz for her clarity. She modernises the culture too, swapping “back in the day” barked orders for calm guidance and turning complex pensions into plain English.

At the heart of the firm are the “afterlife meetings,” where bereaved families receive clear explanations and a map for what comes next. It’s service in its purest form: keep it human, help where you can, and put family first. Across mother, step‑grandad, father‑in‑law, wife, son and daughter, one creed holds everything together: don’t be a dick. Do the right thing, even when no one’s watching.

If Steve’s story resonates, follow and subscribe for more conversations about love, work, and the people who shape us.

Jazz really is a force to be reckoned with, hence I say it three times!

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Memory is Fragile

"In a world where you can be anything, be kind."

Sheila & Alan - Sarah 1973

parents/daughter

A quiet house is not the same as a silent life. In this episode, I sit down with Sarah, who invites me into a world where her deaf father dances by feeling the vibrations through the floor, her car‑loving mum measures affection in late‑night lifts, and a Welsh childhood filled with open doors and louder music becomes the blueprint for building chosen family on the Isle of Wight. It's a warm, funny, and surprisingly fierce journey about identity, community, and the kind of courage that grows when you put your hands to work.

As we talk, we travel from the valleys to the island, comparing cultures and expectations, and sitting with the hard truths of post‑mining Wales - what gets lost, what endures, and why mobility still matters. Cars become symbols of freedom, from minis to "Sheila's Wheels," and family reveals itself as a practice rather than a pedigree. Sarah shares how volunteering with Cats Protection helped restore her confidence, how a white lion's roar reset her nerves, and how the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary turned awe into action. Her fundraising stories come with real gusto: abseiling the Spinnaker Tower, shaving her head, and rallying a community to help rehome ex‑circus tigers.

There's local colour everywhere - village legends, chip shops named after dart scores, cakes that "fall off the back of a van," and even a Gavin & Stacey quiz night raising money for cats. Pop culture threads through her memories too: Teletext subtitles, the magic of the first VCR, and a lifelong obsession with Jaws that's grown into a dream of cage‑diving with great whites.

If you love human stories with grit, humour, and heart - plus cats, conservation, and a cracking Welsh accent - press play. Subscribe too, thank you.

Gavin & Stacey: Essex and Wales collide when Gavin and Stacey fall in love, bringing their friends, family, and baggage with them. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0908454/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

Joe Calzaghe: The "Pride of Wales" famously fought in Las Vegas on April 19, 2008, defeating Bernard Hopkins at the Thomas & Mack Center to win The Ring light-heavyweight championship.

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Memory is Fragile

"In a world where you can be anything, be kind."

Reg Rogers - Matt 1963

great‑great uncle/great‑great nephew

It’s a striking truth about the First World War: a huge proportion of British and Commonwealth soldiers who died have no known grave. Many were buried where they fell, lost to artillery, or laid to rest in makeshift cemeteries that vanished as the front moved. Today, hundreds of thousands are either commemorated on memorials to the missing or lie in graves marked simply as “A Soldier of the Great War — Known Unto God.”

One unexpected email can redraw a family map. When the Commonwealth War Graves Commission reached out about an “unknown” Royal Marine from the Somme, Matt followed the thread from inbox to headstone and watched a century‑old mystery turn into a name, a ceremony, and a living legacy. What Matt & his family first assumed was spam quickly became a masterclass in how careful research — war diaries, graves reports, precise mapping — can identify a single company sergeant major among thousands of the missing.

When I speak with Matt, he takes me back to the moment the news landed: the indirect route the MOD used to track down living relatives, and that first drive through a landscape where cemeteries appear around every bend. At the rededication, a Royal Marine bugler, a Major, veterans, a chaplain, and a representative of the British Embassy in Paris—a Royal Navy attaché, a Captain—stood with the family as Reginald Clarence Rogers MM was honoured. A serving company sergeant major from Lympstone (Royal Marine Commando Training Centre) even came on his own time because he holds the same rank today—a detail that seemed to collapse the distance between 1918 and now. We also explore Reg’s life: born in Kent, service across the empire, rapid mobilisation in 1914, a Military Medal for guiding units to the jumping‑off line at Gavrelle, and his final days on the River Ancre.

Beyond the ceremony, the story widens. We talk about museum barns filled with unearthed relics, a local collector with binoculars engraved with Reg’s name, and a family long tied to the Royal Marines — from a grandfather who served with Churchill to a son now eyeing military service. What emerges is a clearer sense of what remembrance really requires: stewards, records, places, and people willing to show up.

If you’ve ever wondered how an unknown grave becomes a person again, or how a single headstone can change the way a family sees itself, you’ll find the proof in this conversation.

If this story moved you, follow the show, share it with someone who loves history, and leave a review to help others find it.

"Churchill's Batman" refers to the orderly or personal attendant for Winston Churchill

BBC Story: Graves of lost World War One soldiers found

Reg Rogers
DoB: 18/03/1889
DoD: 26/03/1918

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“Follow Longtime Ago People wherever you get your podcasts.”

Copy this RSS feed and paste it into your podcast app.

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Instagram: @longtimeagopeople

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Have a story echoing through time? I’m listening—300 words or fewer.

Memory is Fragile

"In a world where you can be anything, be kind."