Thankyou everyone,he was a quiet man .
When we were evacuated,split up, my sister and I ,she screamed and carried on dreadfully when Mum had to go back to Manchester after a visit.
Dad cane less frequently as he was working at Trafford Park Avro’s .
The Rolls Royce Merlin engines for Lancasters.
My sister monopolised Mum ,so when both came it was Dad I saw most.We children were with different people .
It must have been hard for Mum that I did not cry and carry on ,she was not a child psychologist and must have thought I had forgotten her.
We never really re connected ,unlike my sister.
I thought more of Dad than my sister who was rather disdainful of him.
But he had throat cancer in 1959, lost his voice box so speech was difficult .
We really thought we would only be away two years,offered him our house so
he could leave the shop he had ,( it was closed during the war ) for the two years then we would look for a bigger house and he could live with us.
We asked him to come to us in Belgium ,but the visits and treatment at
Christie’s would have cost the Earth ,assuming he could have got health insurance at all.
No NHS in Belgium.
So good reasons for him to stay in England .
He died 1974 and we returned 1976.
Quite a lot of visits both ways but not the same is it.
We were travelling to England on Friday. For Easter.
Sister phoned Sunday to say he had been rushed in to Christie’s.
I spoke with the staff and they said he had about six months to live.
That was Monday.
But he died on the following day.A heart attack, which given other things was merciful.
My OH had been on a business trip to Manchester the week before and had visited Dad, tried to persuade him to go to Belgium with my husband ,stay and return with us for our Easter visit ,but he had appointments at Christie’s
and did not want to miss them.
So there we are.
But had I known we would be away for twelve years ,well unless he had joined us or I had stayed in England ,but I could not envisage the little boys seeing their Daddy only at weekends and for him to be driving up or on the train for a good part of the tine was ridiculous ,not to mention our relationship. The cost etc, his firm were not known as generous .
As I remember it they were Scrooge,Scrooge and Tight.Ltd.
But sad and I do have regrets.
So his photograph, in WW1 uniform is here and some flowers.
His ashes scattered at Hill 60, a very strategic site in the battles of Ypres.
Signing off now ,a quick tidy up of things generally and back to the bathroom.
There was a film. “ Back to Bataan”.Ww2, The Americans in the Far East,
and might have been McArthur who said “ We will be back”.
After a withdrawal from a fierce engagement with the Japanese.
Well that is what I said to the bathroom late last night!
Viktoria.
