As Graham said, Bob bravely came into our life in 1969. First, he had a stroppy teenager and a spoilt 6 year old to deal with but he also had Mum’s 3 sister’s Betty, Valerie and Connie along with the Matriarch, Nanny Brown or Queenie as she was called, and he took to it like a duck to water with a few waves along the way! I was chuffed to have a Dad in my life like my cousins and was made up when he taught me how to play Puff the Magic Dragon on the guitar. Bob enjoyed our annual holiday to Pontins with the extended family of Valerie, Ernie, Heather, Richard, Nanny Brown & Nanny Sue. It meant he got to spend quality time with Uncle Ernie sea fishing and having the odd beer or two. The price of this was making my fancy dress outfit for the holiday camp weekly competition, and he was up against great competition in Valerie and Ernie but he never let me down. One of my costumes was even handed down to a small child many years later as Bob had saved it. As I grew up and became a difficult teenager staying out late, he adapted to it and even gave me the money after working on a Saturday for an outfit I longed for. My best friend Caroline and I wanted matching outfits but I could not afford mine so he bought it for me. My first experience of flying abroad was marred when the company I bought my ticket from turned out to be a ‘bucket shop’, so Bob came to my rescue again and did extra hours and gave me the money for a new one as he knew I was desperate to get to Switzerland to see my friend Marion. At 21, he bought me my first car, a Fiat 126, and to this day, I think he got more enjoyment out of giving me that than anything. In 1988 he finally got to give me away to Kevin and I can’t think of another person I would have rather have had by my side. But it didn’t stop there, I married a man who had an affinity for blowing up car engines, cue Bob to rebuild them! It used to take them forever but I think that was because they spent so long chewing the cud together. Bob and Kevin have similar interests and between them could fix anything! When I bought my last pub, Bob used to come over and look after the huge beer garden for me as he had retired by then but he didn’t need much encouragement as it meant sampling the real ale. He and Mum even bought me a mechanical stillage to improve the quality. Sadly, Bob was diagnosed with dementia in 2016 and then he had a fall that resulted in his brain surgery in 2019 and we lost a lot of the man we knew and loved. He struggled in hospital and one night Kevin and I sat into the night with him whilst he slept. He frightened the life out of me as he had his arms in the air moving them around and making noises. Kevin told me to stop and watch as he was repairing engines in his comatose state. Kevin was in awe of him that night. Towards the end Mum would say ‘he listens more to you than me’, but I think that was because he thought I was Mum as the confusion worsened. Whilst he had the worst kind of dementia that made him paranoid and scared most of the time, he never forgot his manners and Mum and I would nag him as he constantly stood back to let ladies or us through doors first. That was just the man he was…… a well-mannered, courteous, generous, stubborn, funny, caring man. And we are all better for having had him in our lives xx