Happy times in Happy Valley

I'm blipping a photo of a photo to mark the death of my half-brother, The Old Man. He died yesterday in hospital in London after taking a sudden turn for the worse although he had been in good form up until the last day.  I couldn't get there but his home carer, Maria, of whom he was very fond, was with him. She said his passing was swift and painless. The nursing staff had made him comfortable and didn't want him moved.to another ward because he had touched their hearts during his short stay.

The Old Man had come to the end of a long life, and at 93, had expressed the sense of having had enough. The past few years have not been easy for him but he valued his independence above all else and soldiered resolutely on, living alone (as was his choice) despite many difficulties and considerable pain.  

The snapshot here dates from 1989 when he often spent  time with my family when we lived in Oxford. It's taken at a location in Scholar Gipsy country, just outside the city, where he particularly loved to walk and to spend the day observing plants, birds and animals. The place is known as Happy Valley. 

This blip from 2010 shows him with our oldest cat, Cobweb, whose exceptionally long life also came to an end recently. Friends re-united indeed.

I now have to go to London to do the sort of things one has to do after a death. I may blip or may not, we'll see, but if I don't appear much for a while you will know why.