Every family has its unique character, perhaps more accurately described as a culture. A common thread running through my own has been a desire to be independent, a tendency manifesting itself in the form of building and developing businesses. Without the ability to read and write, opportunities for this type of creativity were constrained, but when this particular limitation became consigned to the past almost anything became possible. Austin Melia (Senior) bridged the old world into the new. Although his efforts formed the basis for the prosperity of future generations, it was Edward and Thomas who seized the opportunities that a recovering post WW1 Britain offered.
Edward may be the most interesting single character but it’s the interplay of each one with the others that makes the story. It is often the case that the poor judgement of a single family member can have unintentional and sometimes devastating consequences for the rest. The family seemed to avoid any major disaster during the years between the wars despite Edward’s approach to life. Nonetheless, he did eventually come close to self-destruction. Fortunately, fate intervened and allowed him to pull back from personal catastrophe; his three years in Wakefield Prison could have been much, much, longer had he played a different game with the justice system.
Without poor decisions and their consequences, unexpected extraneous events, births, marriages and deaths, there would not be much of a story to tell. Fortunately for me there is almost too much to write about. Almost every one of the family characters of two and three generations ago has some characteristic that piqued my interest, and that feature continued into the following, current and next generation.