HAPPY BIRTHDAY - WE LOVE AND MISS YOU!

Had he lived, Alfred Henry Iles, known as “Harry”, the man in the top left of the collage, would have been 110 years old today.  Sadly, he died suddenly in 1977, whilst on holiday in Llandudno with his wife, Joan - a huge loss to her and to his family, who loved him so dearly.
 
I decided to make a collage in memory of Harry on his birthday – and to pay tribute to him.  He was an honest and sincere man, who had a great sense of humour and he was also a man of integrity who not only served his country in the Second World War, but who was also a much loved husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather and brother.  In fact, he was more like a father to me than a father-in-law and although I only knew him for about 10 years, I cherish his memory, as I know the rest of the family do too.  I can still remember the words that our Minister spoke at Harry’s Service of Thanksgiving, when he said that although Harry had died so suddenly, it was only “Goodnight” and we would all meet again one day, which was a great comfort to us all at that sad time.
 
I have no doubt that if there are gardens in heaven, that Harry is the Chief Gardener – making sure that all the seeds are sown at the right time, watered and well looked after and then harvested.  I daresay too that if there is a shed, it is filled with all the same sort of paraphernalia that was in his shed at home.  After he died, and we cleared out the shed, we found a HUGE ball of string, made up of hundreds of individual pieces of string that Harry had obviously collected, not only from parcels sent to them, but also, I’m sure, from parcels sent to the office where he worked.  Well, you never know when you might need a piece of string!  Although he died almost 40 years ago, we still speak about him – and I’m sure that Mr. HCB gets his love of gardening from his Dad.
 
Also in the collage, going round clockwise is Mr. HCB, our older son, Martyn, then his son, Josh, then our younger son, Julian (or Jules as he likes to be called) and finally his son, also named Harry.  The five men in my family who have brought me so much joy and I am sure that Harry senior would be really proud of the men who live to carry on his name.
 
“What we have once enjoyed
     we can never lose.
All that we love deeply
     becomes a part of us.”
Helen Keller

I'm sure you know the drill by now - and a cause dear to our hearts since Mr. HCB's mother had breast cancer - please click on this link to enable those unable to afford it, to have a free mammogram.  Thank you.