My Dad



Sounds like he was a proper bloke. It's good that you were with him until the end, and you and the family can take some comfort from that. He went the way he lived: in the love of his family. My condolences to you and your family, and your loved ones.
 
Deeply touched by your post Becs, sorry to hear of your dads passing, sounds like you've got a lot of him in you and that will make you strong enough to cope.Thoughts are with you keep tight hold.
 
Funeral is on the 22nd March. He's going to be resting in a Sunderland polo top I bought him that he liked wearing.

Finding it hard as it's kind of like living in limbo.

Sorry for your loss, he will be looking down cheering on the 31st I'm sure of it!
 
He will. That was my last conversation with him last Tuesday night. Rang to see how he was but he only wanted to talk about the football and was excited about Wembley.

Been looking at photos of him this afternoon with my Mam and brother :cry:

At least he died happy also knowing he passed on the tradition he would of had if you were the boy he tried to train you as that you follow the lads too :cool:
 
Seen this a bit late in the day becs as ive not been on here as much of late.

Speaking as a bloke I can imagine you were the apple of your dads eye and him being a proud father he spared you his final passing. Obviously he did not want you to remember him as he was right at the end.

My thoughts are with you and your family at this sad time.
 
I wrote and read this out at the Church service yesterday:


My Dad. Where do I start?

This has been so hard to write because he did that many daft things. I could probably keep you here till midnight with amusing tales about him. There’s the time when I was a teen and he cut his finger badly on a corned beef tin, panicked and shook his hand so hard. I had to bandage his finger and then mop the blood off the cupboard doors, the ceiling and everywhere. Or the time he pumped in a caravan and set the smoke alarm off. Or the time we were camping and he grabbed some toiletries from a box of groceries and went for a wash. He came back complaining the toothpaste tasted awful and then we realised he’d cleaned his teeth with Primula cheese spread.

As you know, my Dad was football daft. When I was a baby, my Mam was poorly so he said he’d take me out to give her some peace. Now normal Dad’s would probably have taken a one year old baby girl for a nice walk in the park or something. Not mine! He took me on a tour of Roker Park and was proud of a photo he took of me sitting on the pitch.

As a younger child, Saturday afternoons were spent doing DIY and listening to the radio for the “it’s a goooooaaaalllll” jingle and hoping it was good news. I got a bit older and he started taking me to the matches. I still wear the scarf he bought at my first match at Roker Park and I’ll be taking it to Wembley next weekend. The very last conversation I had with him was on the Tuesday night after Sunderland beat Bristol Rovers in the cup. I did ring up to ask him how he was feeling but he just wanted details of the match and he was excited about Wembley. At this moment, my Dad would really appreciate it if we could all just take a quiet moment for reflection. Let us remember that in this competition, Sunderland beat Newcastle 4-0.

He absolutely loved winding Newcastle supporters up. I’ve heard countless tales about several of you here today when he’s been giggling and telling me what he said to annoy you. He loved teasing my Mam. Once David, me and him were in a swimming pool on holiday. It was deep but there was a narrow ledge around the edge of the pool. He told us all to stand on it and say to Mam, “come in, it’s only this deep.” She stepped into the pool and went straight under the water!

My Aunty Ruth can tell so many tales about being the brunt of his childhood pranks. When he had his heart bypass surgery in India, he rang me just before the op as he needed to find out the previous nights football results. Aunty Ruth rang later to see if I’d heard anything. I said he’d gone down to theatre happy because Newcastle got beat last night. She said he was ridiculous! When I told him what she’d said, he was over the moon that he’d inadvertently wound her up!

My lasting memory of him relates to education. He juggled studying with the Open University with working and homelife to gain his degree. I followed in his footsteps and did the same juggling act with work and my children. He kept me going through this. There’s a photo of me on the screen wearing his cloak and hood on my graduation day. He was so proud that day. My two sons Joshua and James are both at university and Charlotte is doing well at school. He liked hearing how they were doing and I’ll keep his legacy going by encouraging them to do well in their studies to make him proud.

So that’s my Dad! Daft as a brush at times but much loved and will be very much missed, especially when the football results are on.



Then my daughter wrote and read this. She's only 11 - bless her!

I just want to start by saying how much of a wonderful grandad he was. He was amazing to all 5 of us grandchildren (8 if you include the 3 dogs) with his humorous “dad” jokes and childhood stories. He taught us so many tales on the things he used to do to his sister, Ruth, and what he did when Mam and uncle David were younger. I have vague memories from when I stayed at granny’s before he had his heart attack in India. He would come downstairs while I was in the kitchen with Granny and catch me sucking my thumb with my ted interlocked with my fingers. He would quickly snatch ted from me and hide him in the most ridiculous place he could think of. Even after he came home from India to make a slow journey of recovery, he was still making jokes, and recalling childhood memories. He would always have something to say to make a joke out of any conversation which would result in a series of giggling and eye rolling. Overall, he was an amazing person to be around and we will all miss him a tonne.
 

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