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Our Dad was a great man, intelligent, articulate, independent, caring, considerate, humorous, a great adviser, a member of many committees making positive changes for his community. He had an excellent memory, was always fixing things, making things, and was always very active.
He was born in Barbados and lived there up until his teenage years. One of his jobs was working as a chef. Before leaving his home country, our Dad played a role in stopping many beaches from becoming private. He was all about community and residents of Barbados and felt strongly about this matter. He was very passionate about the rights of people.
When he came to England in the early sixties, his first job was working as a bus driver for London Transport. Whilst working there he started playing cricket and his team at the time Langley Park Divisionaries came runner up in 1968 which awarded them with individual trophies.
His next job was with the Post Office in 1969 before it was split up into sections i.e. Post Office, and Telecom. Later Known as British Telecom. (B.T.). He went to college in the evenings and studied electronics and successfully obtained his Diploma. He rose through the ranks as an Engineer working for the company for over 22 years. He took the option of early retirement when the company was making redundancies. In July 1992 he was awarded the Certificate for Long service. He reitred as a temporary Manager.
“Arnie” as he was known to his friends was more busy in his retirement than when he was working, as he got involved in community work with several organisations, to name a few:
- The Adoption Society
- Unwin & Friary TRA
- The Peckham Settlement
As a committee member, he was chairperson and got voted back about three times as they didn’t want him to resign. He was always helping people, giving advice he was straight talking and had a good sense of humour.
A few of his hobbies were:
- Walking
- Riding his bike
- Photography
- Repairing computers and televisions (until digital sets took over)
- Repairing bikes
- Making things
- Playing Cricket
- Playing Dominoes
- Fancy Footwork on the dancefloor
He was a great cook and made brilliant Rum punch that always went down well at family parties.
Our Dad was also a keen gardner who proudly displayed his produce of fruits and vegetables, and beautiful flowers. He was a very religious man believing that all things were possible through Jesus Christ.
He was a family orientated man, he loved his family and friends. One of his proudest moments was the birth of his first grandchild whom he loved and they had a special bond between them. Then the arrival of his second grandchild who also brought great joy. Unfortunately he didnt get more time with him as he was hospitalised six months after his birth.
He was a vey caring person, always willing to help people any way he could. He was a very well respected man. After speaking to him if you had something on your mind, you would forget many troubles. He was an honest man, and if he told you he would do something for you, know that it would be done as he never made empty promises.
Our Dad was hospitalised on 5th September 2016. He was diagnosed with Infective Endocarditis (this will be a topic within the blog), along with other illnesses. Sadly, he passed away on 6th March 2017.
As I’m realising what I’m writing, it’s hard to associate that it’s our Dad we are talking about and he is no longer here. It brings us great sadness every single day. He is highly missed, the only thing we can try and take comfort in is that he is no longer suffering unnecessarily after his courageous seven-month battle whilst in the hospital, and the memories we have of him will live on forever. R.I.E.P. Dad, we love and miss you forever and always.
Grief Probate Journey 