Dad passed away in April 28th 2017, four years after Mum died, and just two months before what would have been his eighty-seventh birthday. Knowing Dad, he would probably have called it "a good innings"!
Mum and Dad were married for sixty-three years and though, like any other married couple they had their ups and downs, I think they were happy together. What I do know is that Dad was never quite the same after Mum died, although my brother Phil did his best to keep him in good spirits, visiting regularly and taking him out for a change of scenery.
Keeping an eye on Dad fell mostly to Phil because, by the end of 2010, Gatti and I had both moved to Hamburg permanently, although we did come back to England at least once a year in the intervening years. After Mum died, our visits were usually timed so that we could be there for Dad's birthday.
At the time of Mum's death, Phil had already lined up an apartment for Mum and Dad in Exmouth in Roswell Court - an assisted living complex. Dad (with help from Phil) bought the apartment outright, and I have to say it was a very nice apartment, although sadly he would not get to share it with Mum.
Born in 1930, Dad witnessed the events of WW2 from the perspective of a youngster. He was nine years old when it started and fifteen years old when it ended. Many of his experiences of that war as a boy are recounted in his one and only novel - "Wilkies War" - which I helped him publish in 2015, and which can be found on this website in electronic form here.
Dad was obviously too young to serve in the war, although he did do a stint in the army arfter the war as part of the government's peace-time conscription program, otherwise known as National Service. After that he returned to employment in civilian life, working at first as a laboratory assistant. And of course, he married Mum!
One of Dad's earliest employers was the Reed Paper Group, for whom he worked at the Ayleford Paper Mill. In fact, although he subsequently worked for many different companies in one capacity or another, the rest of his life was spent working in the paper and packaging industry.
He held many senior positions during the course of his career, including that of managing director. Towards the end of his working life he undertook freelance consulting work - still within the paper and packaging induustry, but working mainly in the field of static damage, an issue that continues to cost industry many billions of dollars annually and has a serious impact on industrial supply.