Gangan

I just wanted to drop a quick post in honour of my Granddad (or Gangan as I called him as a child!). My Granddad passed away Wednesday morning, he had been suffering with dementia for a while now so whilst its very sad that he is no longer with us I am hoping that he is in a much happier place and has all his memories returned to him.

My Granddad was such an inspirational person - when he was 14 he lost his parents and had to take care of his brothers and sisters - can you imagine having to do that at such a young age.

When I was little my Nan and Granddad lived in Brighton and ran a greengrocers. I remember loving to play shop when I was there. They lived above the shop and it was a victorian building so I remember the large rooms with high ceilings fairly well (or maybe as I was little I just remember everything being bigger, a bit like when you look at a Wagon Wheel now and think these use to be so much bigger and with loads more jam!!). Every Christmas, when me and my sister Julie were small, we would get a large box of clothes from Nan and Granddad - it was ace opening up this big parcel and finding lots of new clothes inside (more so for me as being 3 years younger than Julie use to get all the hand me downs so was always excited to have clothes that were just for me! Hmm perhaps this explains my shopping habit.......!). When it was time to head back home after a visit with Nan and Granddad we were always allowed to pick any fruit we wanted and Granddad would put it in a brown paper bag for the journey home. I always had bananas and Julie always had apples - odd the things you remember!

I think one of the best things about my Granddad was that he always said whatever he wanted - sometimes this was down right embarrassing - but lets face it better to tell it like it is than to dance around these things!

We will all miss you lots Granddad, especially Mum who is heartbroken that you are not here anymore. But we have lots of happy memories to remember you by so you will never ever be forgotten.

God Bless x