h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As it's Armistice Day, which a lot of people think of as Remembrance Day, I suppose it's natual to remember the people I've lost. I don't know anyone lost in wars so my 2 minutes silence is spent in just a general acknowledgement of those who gave their lives for us over the years. This is slightly bizarre, possibly, but when I try to think of one soldier I think of Hugh Laurie in Blackadder Goes Forth. Stiff upper lip, coming across as slightly stupid but actually aware of what's coming and being a "brave little boy".

Today I'll remember Jeff, my husband. I'm pretty sure I went into his illness and death in one of last year's NaJoPoMo journals so I won't do it again here. But in a nutshell, he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in August 2005, just before our wedding in the September. He died on 7th May 2006, 8½ months after his dianosis, at 37 years old.

I'll also remember my dad, Bob. Dad wasn't such a constant presence in my life as my mum as they divorced when I was 15 and dad went to live with my stepmum, who aready had two daughters with a complete for a dad. I always felt I had to stand aside for them as they deserved a decent father figure and I had another one in my stepdad Donald. So my contact with dad was fortnightly visits and regular phone calls. Until I moved away from home, when I probably spoke to him every 2 weeks. When we were together we got on really well, we had lots of things in common, but neither of us liked talking to people on the phone and we both worked on the addage "No news is good news". He died on 16th November 2005 from heart failure he'd been living with for 12 years, at the age of 60. I was very happy he'd been able to give me away at my wedding two months earlier.

Also Donald, my stepdad. He died on 8th July 1991, 5 days before his and my mum's 5th wedding anniversary, when she was away from home in Orkney visiting me in London. He was helping his best mate with his salmon farm in a storm. They threw the anchor over the side and the rope somehow got wrapped round his ankle and took him with it. Donald's was the most shocking death I have ever encountered. We were knocked up at 1.30 in the morning by two policemen to break the news. My mum fell to pieces and the next 36 hours were awful - that's how long it took to get her home due to weather condition, etc. Donald was 31 when he died and a good, good man, I truly believe the love of my mum's life.

Memories of these men are very precious. I don't only remember them today but it seemed an appropriate journal subject.

Deb

I agree it's a good time to remember others too.

certainly a good day for remembrance all round.

They sound like lovely people.

()