Grandad, 

I have so many memories of you over the years. I think my earliest is of you taking Kerrie and me to see Pocahontas at the cinema when we were five and six - I remember that Mark was too little to come, and we were so excited to go out and about with Grandad. I also remember what would've been Christmas 1996 when you bought Kerrie the Animal Hospital dalmation toy she wanted so much. You told us that you'd walked to the North Pole yourself to get it from Father Christmas, and even as seven and eight year olds we thought that sounded very unlikely! Another one is the time when you won some money through the lottery at work and bought me a mountain bike with some of the winnings, and I was so proud of it and so touched that you'd thought of me. 

I think all of those memories - and all the many others - remind me of how unfailingly generous you were to all of us, especially with your time and wanting to spend it with us whatever we were doing, or to help us out when we needed something. You must have driven so many thousand miles over the years to see us or to take us places - many times to or from the airport at the crack of dawn. 

You were usually a man of few words, and I think found it much easier to show us how much you loved us all by your actions than by words, but the times when you did put what was on your heart into words have stayed with me all the more because I know it wasn't easy for you to do it. One of those times was when I was feeling low for a week or so when I was at uni, and I came to visit you and Grandma for the weekend. On the Sunday, just before I went back, you took me with you for your walk along the canal and told me about someone you'd known who'd had a similar experience to me, and it meant so much to me that you wanted to comfort me. And you did. 

And then a few years later when I'd finally made the decision that I wanted to go into teaching you sent me an email saying that I'd studied hard and now would be able to pass on my knowledge to the next generation. That also meant so much to me. 

I'll treasure those words and those memories, and the love within them, always.

Love you, Grandad.