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Kelvin’s Site

In My Life

There are places I remember - you can take the man from Stoke but you can't take Stoke from the man.

Wonderful memories of Stoke, Newcastle and Stafford; the telephones, the politics and the people. We still have family in Stoke but are not able to return as often as I would like.

We moved from Stoke to Essex in 1978 where I worked for BP in Harlow and London until 1993 when I was made redundant following the outsourcing of the IT department. I continued to work in IT and ended up as a Freelance Consultant. When I finally retired in 2003 I became very active in Harlow Labour Party (Secretary 2009-2011) and bought a bungalow in the village as a renovation project; I am still an Engineer and a politician but will never be a builder...

Now Chris and I are in the twilight of our days living in Nazeing, Essex; our 'Last of the Summer Wine' period was destroyed when Craig's wife left him; he was left with their 2 boys and her youngest daughter (Hannah) from her previous marriage; Hannah spent a period with her father in Northern Ireland, she then went to live with her mother but has now returned to Northern Ireland where she is living with a relative. We are not sure where her elder sister (Amy) or her mother are. Unfortunately, Craig had a drinking problem and was unable to handle the situation so the boys (AJ & Bobby) are now permanently with us, guess it was easier 40 years ago when we raised Craig and Nicci, Chris and I were younger and we grew together as a family; it is hard being responsible for 3 year old Bobby and 5 year old AJ (now 10 and 12 years) although it is great seeing them developing.

The rest of the here and now is that Nicci and her partner Gordon have a 6 year old son - Fynnley; and an 8 year old daughter - Abigail. They took up temporary accomodation in the aforementioned bungalow while their house in Hertford was undergoing extensive alterations; it is now finished so the focus is back on the bungalow which still requires some minor work and decoration.

Unfortunately, my mum passed away on May 17th, 2014 - Chris's birthday! I was lucky to be able to spend some quality time with her in her last few days and that has eased the pain of her passing.

Dad passed away on August 30th, 2011 and it seems perverse that at the time in their lives when they needed more care and attention I was stuck in Essex.

August 2016