There are countless memories to recall on with Grandad, whether it's driving to Billingsgate from Wokingham at 3am, just because 'we could do with some of those prawns', to hearing the numerous stories about his early working life, which always seemed to end with him demanding his papers and getting a job with more money. There are two of the memories which stick in my head a bit more with Grand. The first is being taught to drive by Grandad behind my parents' back in the warehouse carpark, and then him saying 'now, take us to Sainsburys, we can't go back empty-handed', all while I had still not yet even applied for my provisional licence. Disclaimer, I didn't drive to Sainsburys from there as I still had no idea what I was doing.
The second, and albeit more recent memory was at my graduation from a good old second-rate university. We had tickets for both Nan and Grand, but Nan had to go to hospital (thankfully there was a live-stream, because it's the 21st century). However, we had to apply for disabled seating just in case. We got the seats (front row), but none of us were disabled, so it was then on Grandad to pull one out of his bag of tricks, so that none of the seating officials caught wind...
A man of many words, and a few talents to go along with them, who will be sorely missed by all. He probably was one of the luckiest people alive, and even though I'm happy he lived a great, eventful and happy life, the pain he leaves behind will take a while to heal.
God bless Grand. Sleep well.
Henry
henry soysa
2nd May 2020