Extra strong

My grandfather is 84 years old and he has been poorly for a few days. Shingles and what may have been a small stroke have landed him in a hospital just over twenty miles from home. 

He was a sailor in the Royal Navy in the fifties and a landscape gardner for the majority of his working life. He adores fishing. He has five children, thirteen grandchildren and seventeen great grandchildren (at my last count). Each one of his grandchildren can recall in fine detail how he would have us help him choose tobacco for his roll ups, sticking our tongues out to wet the paper, how he would sit up on his knee and use his knuckles to tickle us until we cried and ran away. And then come back for more. He made the best pork crackling on the Sunday roast and you would always pass him the freshly cut bread slice to spread with the hard real butter, he had the knack! All his great grandchildren will tell you, if asked, how Father Christmas sounds *just* like 'tickly grandad', same tattoos on his forearm too.

And so I was a little nervous today on my way to see him with my nan and sister, a tad worried that he would be altered due to the latest set back. I needn't have been though, he was on top form, full of jokes and bickering gently with my nan (who he has been married to for about 65 years now). He didn't want fussing over, just wanted to know how everyone was and how to change the channels over on the TV.

So we left him in the safe hands of the NHS with his puzzle book and some of his favourite mints. 

S 

I popped in an extra photo of us, I was clearly showing him how to do a job properly (circa 1980).