Dad 16-08-1934 to 04-08-2008

Sad to report that Dad finally passed away 2 weeks ago on August 4th. He died very peacefully at home whch was where he wanted to be, surrounded by his friends and family. At the actual moment of death it was just me and Mum, with soft lights and soft music. Couldn't have been better! He is at peace now, and he is no longer suffering pain and disease.

However, we will miss him terribly! It hits me every so often when I think I'll ask him something, or show him something! He and Mum are my biggest fans of my scrapbooking- they would pore over my scrapbooks and look at every detail! I want to make a scrapbook of Dad's life - in fact, that is my only regret, that I didn't have time to do it with him in his final days. In the end his passing was quite quick - we thought we would have him for a few more weeks.

The funeral went off very well, it was a lovely day with loads of friends and family. Dad's sister made a big effort to come down from birmingham, as did 2 of Mum's brothers. Dad's 3 closest cousins came (they lived with them in WW2 when they were bombed out!) Loads of old colleagues came, as did quite a few friends from the British Polio Fellowship. Mum and Dad helped with the local branch for over 40 years. The vicar was tremendous, she caught the essence of Dad so well in her eulogy! She spent a long time with all of us over several days, and made us feel we were the only people in her world at that time. Afterwards at Mum and Dad's bungalow, it seemed like a real celebration of Dad's life! Although we would have liked him to live for a few more years (he was only 73), he did have a good long life, and it is not a tragedy for us. Mum and I realised that today as we went round Lancing cemetary to see if we would like his ashes buried there. There are too many people who die young, leaving young children and wives to cope alone.

We now have to help Mum to cope with her grief. We need to be patient with her, and not hurry her through the process. She is not used to doing things on her own, which does make it more difficult for her. She will miss him terribly, as we all will

RIP Dad. We have so many good memories to cherish.