My Sunday Photo - Week 138. W is for (future) Wives.

Son's 2, 3, 4 and 5 have girlfriends. For the purpose of the blog they are numbered 2a, 3a, 4a and 5a. Occasionally I name them when I tag them on social media. I'd used up both the letter G's for this year, hence W for (future) Wives and not G for Girlfriends.

My father died last month. 3 days before a party organised to say goodbye to 3 and 3a before they flew out to Australia to start their new lives. We went ahead with the party. Peter and I had met 3a in May when they came out to Dubai for a holiday. 3a was due to meet both sides of the family. My lot and some family friends on the Friday and the following day my ex's family for another farewell do.

Now in my mind that's quite brave. There's an awful lot of us, but to still come and face us all while we mourn the loss of a husband, father and granddad, that deserves a medal. 3a was unable to make the funeral as she was saying goodbye to her family before they flew out to Australia the following week.

4a wasn't able to come to the funeral. 4 was supposed to be deployed the day his granddad died but it was delayed and he was able to fly over the following day and stayed until a couple of hours after the funeral. 4 and 4a visited in June, 4a met the entire family on both sides. Peter has yet to meet her. I spent a long weekend in Northern Ireland in July to meet her and the family. They both flew over last week, bless her what a trooper. 4a helped clear the garage made several trips to the tip, randomly ran across the kitchen to give out hugs to both mother and I as events triggered tears, she came to a wake after I went to my friend's Dad's funeral, visited with 4 his Granny in hospital, helped transport a commode ready for Granny to come home. 4a understands my need for coffee and meet my needs.

2 and 2a live nearby. They come when they are called to help with various things. To help me with 1 as I can't take her out on my own. 2a drove me to the funeral with 2, met my demands for coffee also. Patiently waited for me while I visited my Gran in the Crematorium afterwards and supported me through a breakdown when we went out for dinner and as I entered the room remembered that the last time I'd been there was with them and my Dad back in April, with the rest of the family.

5 has spent some time over the summer with 5a and her family. I've met 5a only a couple of times and her father once. But I've been grateful that 5 has been able to have a break from Mum and I over the past 2 months. He was with me when my father died, he has been staying at both the flat and at mum's being moved a round as visitors have come and gone and it's been good for him to spend time with people his own age.

Left to right.

3a 3 Me 5 Mum 4 2a 2

4 and 4a

And to complete the family album.

1

Dad and Peter.

One Daily Positive - Week 33

It's been lovely having child 4 and 4a back again, I hadn't thought I'd see so much of them them this summer, despite it being a sad summer with my Dad dying suddenly, the timing in respect couldn't have been better with all the kids being around for the funeral and to help out and provide ongoing support over the following weeks.

I feel like all I talk about these days is my Dad, I guess that is natural and to be expected. My life is consumed with grief, everything I do makes me think about my Dad. People keep saying my Dad would be so proud of me, the way I'm handling things, helping my Mum, organising the finances, sorting his things and giving/selling them to a new home where they'll give others pleasure and I should take pleasure and pride from that. Sadly I would not be making my Dad proud, he would be going bloody mad at me right now, if he was still alive, if this was a job I had to do because he was in ill health and the house had to be sold. Him and Mum were in the process of wanting to move, but Dad would've taken years to have sold his stuff, to have downsized, he had started, but he found it hard and he would never have accepted help in doing it. I used to beg and plead with him over recent months to sort his stuff out and not leave me to have to do everything after he died, sadly this has been the case, but during my last few visits he had spoken to me about finances and left everything in order, neatly labelled and had shown me where everything was, although not shown me what everything was. He had pointed out items that he thought were of particular value and had spent time telling me about items in the house with family links so when the time came, which we all thought was much further away, I'd know what to keep and what to sell.

225 Sunday Cocktail Emptied out Dad's drinks cabinet, neither him or Mum drank.

Sold some of Dad's stuff at a boot sale this morning, child 4, 4a and 5 came along for the morning before going to visit their Granny in hosptial.

226 Monday Bling. Visited the old Rank Xerox plant in the Forest of Dean.

Took Dad's fishing gear to be valued and called in to see my friend, not a good day as we start to empty the house of Dad's things.

227 Tuesday Ticket. Birmingham City v Bolton 0-0

Off to Tenbury Wells to my friend's Dad's funeral with 4 and 4a, then off to watch Birmingham City play. I was very upset during the match. Think I only ever went to 2 or 3 games with my Dad, but I'd always buy him a program and give him my ticket stubs.

228 Wednesday I Love.

Mum and I baby sat great grand son no 2 for an hour then went into town for some shopping and bought cakes to eat at home. The train set, toy cars and subbetto were sold and taken away. That wasn't easy to see them go, it was more about the hours my Dad spent in the garage putting the tracks and buildings together than it was the actual items.

229 Thursday Spots. We seem to spending most of our time here in the garage.

Spending a lot of time in the garage sorting through things. The train base was dismantled and a family effort to tidy the garage and sort through stuff for the boot sale. Out for dinner with 2, 2a, 4 and 4a and back to Mums to finish tidying the games room.

330 Friday Traffic. We rarely used the front door when Dad was alive, it was saved for visitors and the lock was dodgy.

The Estate Agent arrived to measure and take photo's to put the house on the market. We went into town with 4 and 4a for coffee and cake and some shopping, showed Mum how to check in on FB, upload a photo and tag others. Gave up the will to live. Spent the evening sorting Dad's study. Mum cooked dinner.

331 Saturday Soft Focus. Take that photo, don't worry about make up or hair, just live the moment.

Child 4 and 4a left early back to Northern Ireland at 4.45am, I have the flat back to myself till I collect child 5 this afternoon from Stratford on Avon. I didn't get back to sleep so cleaned and tidied and watched some TV, had a bath and went for coffee and blogged. I'm off to sell some more stuff at a local boot sale. Decided I need some time to myself and some space to switch off, so I'm leaving child 5 at my mum's where he can stay till the end of the month until the internet is switched off.

On the blog this week:
My Sunday Photo: P is for Paraphernalia 

My Sunday Photo - Week 137 P is for Paraphernalia

Most of the stuff my Dad bought was from the Boot sales. Him and Mum loved spending their weekends mooching around them. Dad loved a bargain, he loved flea fairs, auctions, charity shops also. He loved to look at things that reminded him of his childhood, historical events etc. He loved to pick up toys for the kids, ornaments for the house, tools, items to supplement his hobbies, such as his fishing and golf.

Dad also loved a good moan and to pass comment. He'd complain about the prices of things and love it when he got a bargain.

Dad would find it very sad when people sold off stuff belonging to parents and grand parents after they had died and would often talk to me about the how important it was to him that we didn't just take all his stuff to a car boot, take collections apart and sell it all for next to nothing, that the value was in his collecting and not in the items. He'd tell me there were items that were worth a bit of money and to make sure we didn't get ripped off and to take our time selling things and if needed to pay for storage to allow us to do things properly.

Dad and I argued over this a lot. I'd tell him that what was of value to him wasn't of value to me and that he should start the process of selling his things and enjoying the money while he could and that I would rather he did that than inherit what I considered to be such a chore after his death. This upset him greatly. I often joked with him that I'd call house clearance in when he was on his death bed and the night he died, those words echoed around my head, those were not the last words I said to him, but those were the last words I thought about.

Sadly the reality is that today I was at a boot sale. He died 5 weeks ago this Tuesday. I was selling some of his stuff. His fishing gear is going off to a buyer tomorrow, someone is coming on Wednesday to look at his car and train collection, several trips have been made to the skip already, the shed is being sorted this afternoon, the attic later this week. The pool table, golf clubs and other sporting memorabilia is being sorted for sale, items are being sorted for flea markets and a few pieces for auction, the rest sadly is for the boot sale though.

One Daily Positive - Week 32

Finally got round to going back to the GP to find out the case of why I'd been unwell prior to my Dad's death, more bloods taken, more symptoms, same as before. Probably all stress related, didn't even get to the bit about the neighbour. GP asked how mum was doing, difficult to answer really as I've nothing to measure against, but in my opinion mum is doing better than OK.

Due to my time being limited in the UK and mum's desire to move, prior to dad's death, we've started clearing the house ready to put on the market next week. I know this is quick and many will have their opinions on this matter that I'm steam rolling mum and she needs time to reflect but really mum and I aren't those types of people. We're practical people, yes it's difficult clearing out Dad's so soon after he's died, but I guess it will be difficult at anytime. I do feel like I'm being disloyal, getting rid of collections he's spent his lifetime building, dismantling units he's lovingly constructed, but that was HIS hobby, HIS passion and while he was alive it was respected, but now he is dead, keeping all this stuff achieves nothing.

Dad was from the generation that threw nothing away, saved things as they may come in handy one day. When we moved to South Africa in 2011 he took most of the stuff we left behind that we couldn't sell in the 3 months we had, I never realised exactly how much stuff of ours he had kept. The kitchen block he used in the garage as his work bench, the hoover just for cleaning his car, the kids TV he rigged up in the garage to watch the news on, the frames and slats from the kids ikea bunk beds and the bolts all labelled so they could be reassembled if anyone else wanted to use them in the future. We were ruthless, we didn't take things apart with care, we didn't save the nuts and bolts for future use, we broke things up, we chucked it in the car and we threw it in the tip. It felt good to so, Mum stayed out the way and let her 2 grandsons, niece and grandson in law and myself just get on with it, make the decisions about what we got rid of, under my supervision. There were moments when I found it too hard, when I felt disloyal, but he's my Dad, he isn't here any more and the one thing I have learnt since my Dad has died more than anything else is that it is the people that matter, not the the things they have.

218 Sunday Smile

Slow cooker on and off in Dad's car to Newport for coffee with friends. Cooked a Sunday roast for 6 adults and 2 kids.

219 Monday Family Trip. Not going out as a family, but spending a lot of time together this summer doing things.

More paperwork and financial stuff, sorted through Dad's football papers and spent the evening with friends, mother, daughter and grandchildren. Ended up playing sports day with the 5 year old after tea.

220 Tuesday Wide Angle

We started clearing the garage. Dad didn't do things by halves, there were 23+ fishing rods and associated paraphernalia, we have a similar scale to work through in the rest of the house, made several hundred phone calls to line up potential buyers for a lot of his stuff for next week.

221 Wednesday Clouds

Down to Newport to collect Dad's will and to Abergavenny to drop of the financial donations in memory of Dad to the coronary care unit

222 Thursday Amuse

Took the teen to visit his Granny in Gloucester Royal Hospital in the afternoon and I wandered around the outskirts of the City

223 Friday Pets. Missing home at the moment. Been away since 19th June.

Catalogued and complied a rough guide to how much the fishing gear was worth ready for Monday so I have a rough idea how much to expect. Dad never really spent much money on it all, Mum is realistic that we won't get anything near what he spent though and although we've been looking on Ebay to see how much things are selling for, it doesn't tell us how long people have listing items for before they sell and we've noticed that most buyers are selling items in bulk, if we had time and patience and ran it as a full time business I'm sure we could achieve a lot more money for his stuff, but we neither have the time or the space.

224 Saturday Wet. Thankfully the weather is staying nice and dry to allow us to do the jobs needed.

I drove to Birmingham airport to collect child 4 and 4a, he's like a bloody yo yo, back and forth from Belfast this summer, but I'm loving having them both around. We spent the rest of day dismantling the garage units, it took nearly an hour just to clear the door, locks, cut a shelving unit to open the up and over door and 3 car fulls to the tip. There's still one more run to do with paint and chemicals that need disposing. There's a train set and several golf clubs that need to be sold, but now we have room to actually put the contents of the attic next week so we can sort what's rubbish (years of news papers) what's for the boot sales and what we can now look at selling online and at auction and flea markets. Fish and chips all round for dinner and loaded the car for the boot sale in the morning.

On the blog this week:
My Sunday Photo: J is for Jag Driving Dad's car, it was no big deal.

My Sunday Photo - Week 136. J is for Jaguar

I got to drive my Dad's car today, it was his pride and joy. he never would've let me drive this while he was alive. It would've been too big for me. Too heavy to handle. Too difficult to park. Too much to add me to the insurance.

I drive a 4x4 back home, I've driven in numerous countries around the world in both left and right hand drive cars.

It wasn't that my Dad didn't trust me. It was just his car and he didn't want me to drive it.

Since he's died, I've understood that, I didn't need to drive it, I didn't need to prove any point that I could drive it. I should've just respected he wishes and not gone on about it.

It doesn't matter now. I drove it today and quite frankly, it was no big deal. I teased him about the cost of fuel, joked about how he'd need to refuel after going round a round about, but I got 44mpg out of it today.

So what if he bought himself a Jag, so what if we teased him about it. It was his pride and joy. I know I have many things that my Dad considered a waste of money, in fact he used to go on at me and the boys about the cost of designer shoes, clothing, handbags, that it was a waste of money. But like the Jag, it gives us pleasure.