1st May 2022

This was the day my Dad passed away.

He collapsed in the early hours of New Years Eve (my birthday), was taken to hospital and it was about 7pm before we got a phone call to say he’d got pneumonia.

We were initially told he was responding well and just needed some physio to build his strength up before he could come home.

Then out of the blue, we got a call to say he’d got end stage heart failure and had a limited time left. The hospital pushed to try and send him home with carers coming in 4 times a day, but what would happen if he needed help between visits? So we decided a nursing home was the best option.

The home he was meant to be going to had a COVID outbreak, so he went to one much further away. However, when he’d been admitted we were shocked to find out that they also had COVID within the home! We were advised that they were retesting and normal visiting would resume as soon as they were clear (this didn’t happen in the 3.5 months he was there!).

My Dad was a kind and gentle man, he always smiled and had a great sense of humour, which he kept until the end.

He was also a big animal lover, he used to feed the birds in his garden and was delighted when he had a hedgehog in residence too.

When I was in hospital for 4 months following my accident, he drove to see me every day. He also looked after my rabbit Paddington, visiting twice a day to feed him and let him have a run around the lounge.

I felt really guilty about him looking after Paddington at first, then when I asked about Paddington my Dad’s face would light up and I knew he enjoyed spending time with him. To the point that, when I eventually came home from hospital he said to me “make sure you look after MY rabbit!”.

He was also a super DIY Dad too, when I got my first horse (Misty), I mentioned I was going to get a saddle rack, and he immediately said, “its ok I’ll make one for you”. Next time I visited there it was, apparently made from bits of old paddling pool frame he’d kept in his shed (this is where I get my “it might come in useful one day” tenancies from). He even made a wheel clamp for my horse trailer too.

This was probably why when he did his national service he was in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), and spent most of his service in Aden driving and fixing tanks.

He also loved nature and walking outdoors – particularly in the Lake District and Rivington Pike.

I’m lucky to have had such a wonderful man as my Dad – gone but never forgotten.

RIP Dad xxx