Monday 8 July 2013

People leave our lives but not our memories

Mum and Dad.

I have written this post as a way to air my thoughts about my Dad. I am not the best with words, but I have just written what I could think of.


My Dad passed away on 18th June in his care home, he had a progressive illness that he could no longer fight. Although the last 5 years while he stayed in his care home have not been easy, I can honestly say he has had 5 star treatment. The staff are angels that like a party, and care like its family. The home is not a place to die but a place to live, whether it's rugby, swimming, films or a shandy in the pub they would take you out. There is beauty treatments, games, story telling and cooked from fresh meals. They provided support and care not just for Dad but for all of us, especially mum over the last few weeks, with hot meals, a spare bed and sitting with Dad around the clock so she could some sleep. They even sat with her at the end and made us lunch and drinks to make sure we didn't go without. A very big thank you to Ange who dressed Dad for the funeral director, dressing him in his best clothes, her final act of care. Without the home and its amazing staff our last few years would have been traumatic difficult and maybe shorter.

So that's the end, lets go back to the beginning, well my beginning. I think I have always been a Daddy's girl. I loved the things my Dad loves trees, plants and growing things, I would rather be in the garden than the house. My love for classic cars is from him, I hope my dress sense is slightly better than his though! I don't have a particular love for orange, like he does. My Dad was always a joker, the one to pull a funny face at a tense moment and always had a toothy grin. Certain things were a gaurantee, on a walk it wasn't bird spotting but tree spotting, and gathering saplings in his rucksack. He always carried a rucksack but it never had food or clothes in, it was for collecting saplings of conifers, not that we needed to grow huge trees. He also gathered conkers and at one point we had 100 conker trees in various pots around the garden, when we were ever going to need 100 conker trees I do not know.
There are the christmas presents I bought for mum on his behalf, from an early age I was taken to the shops to buy mum's presents, he would pay and carry but I had to select things. It wasn't that he didn't care but he wanted to buy things she wanted or needed. There was his love of loud music, bonsai trees, hot dog sausages, ice cream milkshakes and pickled cauliflowers. He could not cook anything, well maybe porridge in the microwave, he didnt like cheese sauce in his lasagne or curry.

There are so many memories to share but the thing that I miss most is that when things were hard or I was upset he would give me a cuddle and tell me everything would be ok because he was there.

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