Moved into our house in a close in a small town in north Wilts 10 years ago last summer. After a year or so I started getting on with an auld fella cross the road in his late 70s. An engineer an inspiration. We shared a love of old cars and machinery. He inspired me into a hobby buying and restoring machines, I got him out from his cycle of watching tv and back into his workshop. We became really close.
His wife was struck with dementia and we both watched her fade away. He looked after her until one day they were both taken away, she ended up in a home, he in hospital the stress having nearly killed him, with an ongoing heart condition. He came home and recovered slowly, visiting his wife often.
I hopped across the road, often, listening to his memories as an adopted lad, a war refugee, a lad who used to race a bike home from school with Lestor Piggot (who was a right dislikeable snidey [Poor language removed] who would throw a branch into his spokes to win), a tailor, a car salesman, an engineer. He taught me so much in the last 10 years, we laughed so often. He was a wind up merchant that could give and take merciless humour without an ounce of bad feeling or venom. A good salt. I lost my dad to cancer 30 years ago at a young age, and this fella kind of filled a bit of that spot.
He has steadily declined recently with cancer. Good days, bad days. Looked really well 2 weeks ago, not so good this week. Hadn't seen his kids (local) since before christmas as they had been ill and kept their distance to protect him . He phoned me yesterday about a pint of milk. It was unusual as he was fiercely independent, but I had insisted, earlier, that it was no trouble and I would be angry if he didn't ask for help. I obliged and he was grateful.
Brian died this evening. I'm in floods. Sorry - I just needed to write a eulogy, somewhere, for a mate. Even though it was coming, it was too sudden. 88 years young. Look after those close you love kids, they don't have to be relatives.
