Delia and I met at a dance at Cranbrook Hall, Ilford. The men would have to walk across the room and asked the ladies, ‘Would you like to dance?’ If the lady in question shook their head at you, before you reached them, then you would take that as a no and turn back!
Luckily for me Delia nodded and said yes. Neither of us could dance very well, but that’s where it all began. I went to the dance the following Saturday hoping she would be there, and she was, and I asked her again if she would like to dance.
We were soon married and during the course of our life together had four wonderful children, who in turn have gone on to have many lovely grandchildren.
Delia always loved babies and children. We moved around a lot mostly for my work, from London to Kent to Lincoln to Wales, but when we moved to Norwich, Norfolk we both loved it and said this was where we wanted to retire.
We wanted to make sure our family didn’t have to keep moving around and they could put down roots. Delia easily made friends, she loved meeting new people, she was chatty and friendly and loved finding out about people’s life history. Sometimes she would disappear while we were in shops, and I would find her chatting away to someone!
When we retired, Delia and I continued to use our caravan to go on holidays to France. We used to drive right down through the countryside. We would drive down to the south of France, making stops throughout the country and meet other caravan owners who we would have a lovely time with, playing games, drinking wine and having parties. It became a real love for us both. We had lovely memories of time then.
As time went by, we ended up buying a house on the south coast of France, and we had the Mediterranean coast right in front of us and that was one of the most loveliest times that we had.
Delia and I met lots of people there, and she made a wonderful friend there called Dominique who encouraged us all to speak French. Delia in return would make a traditional English Afternoon Tea and they would have lots of fun together.
There had been a history of ovarian cancer in Delia’s side of the family. Her cousin had passed away from it too, but even then Delia had very few symptoms so it came as a great shock that she was so ill.
She had suffered from bloating and went to her local doctor to ask for their opinion, but unfortunately the doctor she saw there just dismissed the bloating as IBS. By the time ovarian cancer was confirmed it was too late, there was nothing the hospital could do. They suggested a course of treatment, but Delia didn’t want to go through with being in pain, especially when it likely wouldn’t have treated the cancer.
I remember being in the hospital during the four or five weeks that Delia was there. The nurses were amazing and took such good care of her, Delia always responded to them when they were in the room.
She went downhill quickly, and I was with her until the end. The one time I got very upset was on the night that she died. The one thing I wanted when I knew it was going to be her last night was to get into bed and hold her.
More importantly, I really wanted to bring her home, but I didn’t have time to arrange everything she would need to do that. I knew I couldn’t do that. But I was at her side until her last moment.
I miss her. I miss her dearly. I could’ve moved, sold the house. But I love the house and the town where we decided to settle down. It has memories of her and there’s nowhere else I want to be.
I put the tribute page up as a way of making donations to the charity, but I really felt the need to remember Delia and I really think about her a lot, the relationship we had, the life we had together. I’m still here, because I have the memories.
Delia and I had a wonderful life together, we brought up a very lovely family. We had some very good times together. All I can say is I miss her so much and it’s been really, really hard for me since I lost her. I think about her every day, and I know I was so lucky to be her husband.
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