Birthday

This would have been my Dad's 89th birthday today. He's been dead for almost 14 years now, which in itself is crazy. Doesn't seem that long, perhaps because he is thought of every day.

This photo, which is in an album that my mum must have put together donkeys years ago, has many old black and white photos in it which I have now and enjoy looking at periodically. I wish she had put dates on them! Mum and Dad got married in 1955 and they were age 26 and 28 respectively. They had been friends for a while before they started going out together as my mum was friends with Aunty Jean my dad's youngest sister who died in 1996. They went around with a gang of men and women going to dances at the Hall in Blackford and Auchterrder, the cinema in Auchterarder and walks in the countryside.

My Dad was renown for his endless patience, something that my mum certainly didn't have and I unfortunately didn't inherit from his. He was quite shy, again, not inherited and opposite from mum, but had his own voice and opinions where it mattered. He absolutely hated Maggie Thatcher, not alone in Scotland with that one! I do remember his opinions on her. Haha! He always had good advice and I would go to him rather than mum as he was level headed in his approach and trusted his judgement. His family meant everything to him. Dad would have done anything for me and I knew that.

It's funny as you get older you see the bits you inherited from both parents. Facially, I got my Dad's big green eyes, dark thick wavy hair and strong white teeth. Thank goodness cos Mum got all her teeth ripped out at 40 cos they were done and wore dentures since then and her hair is straight, thinish and has to be permed ... Her eyes are smaller and grey... But thankfully got mum's long slim legs, not the Hally small dumpy ones and got the dainty hands and feet and small bones from the Cowper side.

I got my Dad's love of nature, countryside and the outdoors as he would take my brother and I out walking every Sunday when we were kids, pointing out things from the changing seasons in the walks around our village where we grew up. We always had a camera too, and I'm glad we have so many photos from way back... and music, there was always a wireless playing or records on the turntable.

He was a wonderful Dad. He may be gone but his memory is with us forever.