Happy Birthday Daddy

This is my Daddy , He was taken from me far to soon , his life stolen by Motor Neuron Disease .

I wasn't particularly close to my dad as a child , he didn't live with me and I only saw him when I was visiting my grandmother (which was fairly frequently).  As I grew up he seemed to want to spend more time with me , he took me horse riding and paid for lessons , he even took me to see Micheal Jackson live - He got it slightly wrong , I was a George Micheal Fan but it was still amazing ).

When my son was born seeing him playing lego on the floor with him was something I never thought I would see.

This was taken in Florida on the first , last and only holiday we took together .

He loved Disney and had always spoken about taking his grandchildren there , once he was diagnosed it became important for us to go sooner rather than later . 

I can't help but smile at the memories we made, getting caught in the rain at Epcot and being soaked to the bone all day, spending a whole day apologising to people that he'd attempted to run them over in his motorised wheelchair and taking him to the airport 24 hours early for his flight home amongst them

It was on his return from this holiday that his health deteriorated hugely and he didn't eat again after the holiday - This was May 2003 I was 8 weeks pregnant and he never got to meet his grandson .

I will never get over the cruelness of this awful illness, can you imagine dying a little bit more day by day and knowing what's coming , loosing your mobility , being unable to eat ,loosing your voice , can you imagine being aware that you are struggling to breath as your lungs stop working.

I'm not sure I would be brave enough to do as my dad did and see it through to the end 

 He was so brave , never letting us see how much it was hurting , never complaining about it , working until he was unable to do so any more and keeping his sense of humour right until the end .

This is what makes My Daddy , My Hero