What has been so overwhelming since my dad passed away, is how many people he has made an impact on during his long, happy and fruitful life.
 
Without exception every person that I have spoken to; has said the exact same thing; “My dad was always smiling and always made us laugh”.
 
My dad had an absolute love of anything to do with the RAF and so my 2 fondest recent memories are of his 75th Birthday where we experienced flying gliders together, something he did while in the RAF. And our day out at Duxford air museum for his birthday a couple of years ago, where I managed to arrange a private viewing inside a Lancaster bomber
 
He was always quite the joker and over the years I learned of so many stories. If my mum was out, he’d always attempt to make anyone working around the bungalow a cuppa tea, but by the time he delivered it, it was generally half a cup.
 
He fell off his motorbike as a kid, twisted the handlebars and never straightened them. Which was fine, he got used to it until he swapped bikes with his best mate where neither of them could ride them straight.
 
One day he went into the outbuildings with a .22 rifle to shoot rats. While his friends waited outside, they heard a bang as the gun went off and then deadly silence. In a panic they ran in to see my dad frozen and afraid to look down. It was then they were able to confirm there was a lump of concrete missing from between his feet, but luckily his feet were still intact!
 
I heard from the son of a Carpenter and close friend of Dad’s, who told me of their time working at Colchester zoo; Where they caught and returned a python on the main road  that was waiting at the bus stop and the time they had to hide in a leopard cage as it had escaped. All in a day’s work for them!
 
He once came home with 15 ft of Bank teller desking, so as a young kid I thought he’d “robbed a bank”, but he assured me, he’d in-fact “won it in a raffle!”.
On a weekend if my dad was in the living room and laughing his head off, I knew Morecambe and Wise were on the telly, one of his favourites.
 
My dad wasn’t into fitness, but he kept himself fit by putting his tools down and losing them 5 mins later.  It got me thinking that if dad had a theme tune it would have to be “But I would walk 500 miles” by the Proclaimers…… and that was just to put a shelf up!
 
I recently tidied up his workshops and found 11 hammers!
 
Whilst my dad wasn’t an affectionate person, his way of caring was always making sure we had a roof over our head and that we never went hungry. He did this by spending 7 years single handily building the family home in-between working hard on many building sites across Colchester.
 
Even though he wasn’t keen on me racing cars, as I started to progress he painstakingly built a pit in the workshop, digging it out by hand so that it was easier for me to work on my car. He eventually even came to a few races and became team photographer, so for me that was very special being able to share a passion of mine, which was so outside of dad’s comfort zone.
 
Dad and I didn’t always agree, there was quite a generation gap and he raised me as if we were in the Victorian times but in the end I learned that what he did to create a stable and secure home was beyond inspirational.
 
He taught me that you don’t have to be an academic or book smart to succeed in life. In-fact it’s quite the opposite. Success comes in many forms, but it’s based on a passion for something, backed by hard work, loyalty and perseverance.
 
Qualities that my dad had in bucket loads.
 
I learned so much from my dad, but what I would do to build one more thing together.
 
I love you dad, rest in peace.