08 Jan 09 A Personal Remembrance

Times flies. It’s been 18 years today, since your passing. I still remember some of the discussions we used to have. I know you were of a different generation, but you had many values that many of us would do well to champion today.

You were always a gentleman in the true sense of the word.  You knew what was right and what was wrong, and always followed the former to the letter.

You believed in good manners. Aside from having a mortgage, which you saw as an investment in the long term, you thought today’s world of having everything ‘on tick’ was crazy, and you beleived that you appreciated the material things in the world more if you saved up for them, and that when you got them home, you could be proud of the fact that it was all yours, and you’d earned it.

You got cross when I changed jobs, more than once. You couldn’t understand why more people couldn’t be like you. You left school at 14, which was the age that children from ordinary families left school then, and got a job in the local Naval Base. It wasn’t called that then, it was the Dockyard.

You worked there all your life, until you retired at 58. Back in the 1960′s that was a feat in itself. Most working folk didn’t even think about early retirement, they worked until they got a pension at 65. However, because of your attitude towards money, you were able to retire early, and live on your savings for seven years.

You didn’t travel the world, save for your overseas commission to Singapore in the 1960′s, but you seemed to lead a contented and happy retirement, which lasted you just over 22 years.

I was annoyed with you when you died you know. I alone stayed at the hospital on your final night, until around 4am, when you looked peaceful and rested, and I was so sure you’d still be here in the morning that I went home. You died less than an hour after I left.

I didn’t make that mistake five years later when it was Grandmothers time to join you.

I know I’ve done things since your passing that you’d not approve of; I know you’d tell me in no uncertain terms either. I’d sit and listen too, because even when I disagreed with you, I always had the utmost respect for your opinions and your values.

I know you’d think that all of this ‘new-fangled’ stuff like the Internet, and 300 TV channels was a bit crazy, and some of it a waste of money, and that you and Grandmother didn’t have all this, and you did very well thank you.

Also, though I know that some of it you would find interesting and useful, and I remember you being enthralled and excited when you could watch live Test Cricket from Australia, when the satellite link went up sometime around 1973, and you didn’t have to wait for the BBC to fly back the tapes of the previous days play to show the highlights anymore.

I know you’re sitting up there, looking down on all us lunatics running around ever faster and faster in this whirlpool of innovation that even the  innovators have trouble keeping up, and I know you’ll be looking forward to see if England can give the West Indies a run for their money when they start their international tour there at the end of this month.

God Bless.

Tags: aaniversary, death, graddad, meories, passing, remembrance