2012 Project365 (Day 200)

Categories: guernsey, project365-2, family-2

Tags: family, death, loss, grief, project365, Uncle Steve

Date: 19 July 2012 16:41:31

My 200th post!! This is a photograph of Gran Nora and my Uncle Stephen on the day he graduated with an Open University qualification in Social Work. Really, this post should have been yesterday but a) I forgot, and b) I wanted my 200th post to be special. Uncle Steve died in 2000 from cancer. He is very sorely missed by his wife and children but also his extended family. He was a brilliant guy who headed up the Children's Services in Guernsey for a while and was well-liked in work. At home he was a little bit bonkers and was known for his sheds - he seemed to have several. On one particular day he ordered a delivery of concrete so that he could concrete his new shed. Sadly he had miscalculated and when the lorry started pouring this concrete into the base of the shed he realised that he had somewhat overestimated. I remember him shovelling half-set concrete out onto the gravel driveway. It looks like an elephant had left giant turds all up the driveway! I also remember him setting up a long bit of plastic at the top of the slope in his garden and then covering it with washing up liquid and putting the hose running at the top. We then spent a happy afternoon sliding down the slope. It would have been a nice clean event had he not recently mowed the lawn so when you rolled off the polythene at the end you also got covered in grass clippings. Those are the things I remember best. Yesterday was the 12th anniversary of his death. We still miss him and I often wonder how much richer our lives would be were he still with us.