A word or two:

I'm probably not the best person to write this remembrance because he died while I was still in diapers, and consequently unable to remember him as the person he was in life. But somehow he managed to leave me with several lasting memories that I'll never forget.

As a child, I was always curious as to why some of my toys, and our furniture, looked different to other people's. A rocking horse was always one of my favorites. I later learned that he was a great carpenter and made all these things himself in his workshed for his daughters. It was stored for a number of years and then handed down to me as the eldest Grandson. It was later handed down again to someone else, and its whereabouts now are completely unknown, but I'll never forget it. You could never me off that thing. I was always in a world of my own when I was on it, which was as often as possible.

He had married his childhood sweetheart Catharina Hahn, and together they bought a large Victorian house in Hackney where they lived happily raising two daughters, Kathleen and Doreen. His untimely death at an early age from a heart atack may have ended his life, but not the memory of it. Visits to the house today where he lived would show many of the things he built still standing strong.

His death left a hollow emptiness in those who knew him, yet it also offered a different kind of memory to those who later learned more about him. I was probably at his funeral but don't remember it. I can only say that I wish we had known each other better.