Another Maudlin Monday!

Being Monday, again, I did a spot of cleaning! When I do mindless things like that, my mind tends to go off on its own, and today my thoughts turned to my dad who would have had his 100th birthday on Saturday. There are lots of things that remind me of him in our home, he made the rocking chairs in the bedroom and a side table stands next to my chair in the lounge. His old woodworking tools are displayed on an old trunk and I have many photos of him on my desk. But the most precious reminder that I have of him is the portrait that Andrew painted of him, unknown to me, that he gave me for Christmas in 1994.

My father painted by my son!

My dad was a policeman through and through! He served in the CID in three forces during his lifetime, the Metropolitan Police in London, the NRP in Lusaka and the Swaziland Police Force in Mbabane.

Dad as a 'Bobby on the Beat'.

In the early 1970's he was awarded the MBE and we went to the Government House in Mbabane.

A very proud moment.

He was fair and kind (mum was the disciplinarian!) and I loved to help him when he was making things in the shed, or digging in the allotment over the weekends. He would come home quietly in the weeks before Christmas, knowing that we were waiting for him, and hide gifts behind the cushions in the lounge (that room was only used at Christmas) and then slam the front door as if he had just walked in! Wednesdays were chocolate days and we would dig in his pockets for our treats while mum always had a box of 'Dairy Box' chocolates.

Mum and dad, July 1938.

He was never without his pipe and the aroma of pipe tobacco, to this day, sends me back to my childhood. I remember well the wooden toys he made for us, the rocking horse that he made for my children, and the fun they both had with him when they were growing up. He would hide his socks in their beds, give them rides in the wheelbarrow and allow Andrew the freedom to hammer nails into bits of wood to make planes. He loved them both very much and enjoyed spending time with them. Catherine Christened him 'Gongy' and that name stuck! He liked to say that he was the only Gongy in the world!

The last photo taken of him just before he died shows him sitting in bed with his unlit pipe in his mouth. That is the only photo out of the entire roll of twenty four, that has a heart shaped black mark on it.

He died of a heart attack a few days after the photo was taken. Makes you think doesn't it?