December in Haga Park

Liam and Neela in the cold winter landscape of our local park, Haga Park. The snow was about 40cm deep and drifting deeper in places. Neela was looking a bit cold as the wind picked up. Time to go home.

Dads Funeral

In the end the Dad died sooner than any of us could have imagined. He died in hospital on the 28th November 2012 with Penny at the side of his bed. It’s strange, but in the weeks before he died, I had this strange idea that I might not be upset when being given the inevitable news of his death. But when I finally got the call from Penny to say he had died in the night, I was sad. I did cry. I was in a taxi at the time, on my way to the airport for a business trip to the US, so the timing wasn’t perfect to say the least. I don’t think the taxi driver noticed my tears. I was OK by the time we arrived at the airport. I remembered that morning at breakfast that I had told Caroline that I’d woken in the night and that I had wondered if it might be connected with Dad’s condition. Of course I don’t really believe that it was related to him dying, but it was a bit strange anyway that it happened on just that night.

 

We all would have gone to the funeral had Nicholas not been so young, so Hannah, Emma and I went in the end. We took an evening flight to Heathrow, picked up a hire car and drove first to Michael’s in London to stay the night. On the day of the funeral, the 18^th December, the drive up to Oakthorp the next morning was almost a disaster. We hit a closed section of the M25 due to an accident. But thanks to the satnav in the car, we made some cross country detours and got to the Shoulder of Mutton just in time anyway. Penny and her family were already there and soon we were getting into the large black car that had been ordered for us. It was a bit strange, sitting in the car with Penny, the children and Julie from the pub, and then seeing the funeral director walked in front of the cortege for the first roads out of the village. I wasn’t expecting it, I had no idea they still did that. Michael was waiting at the chapel and there was quite a large group of friends and acquaintances waiting in the small chapel. The service was very relevant and emotional. I made a reading during the service. It was quite hard to deliver without tears, but I’m glad I did it. Considering the comments afterwards, it seemed to have been appreciated by the people attending. When we got back to the pub, there was an air of sadness and relief. We had some drinks and chatted with the people who had known Dad at the pub. Julie had organised some tasty food for all the close friends and family and we all sat around chatting and reminiscing about Dad and his eccentric ways. It was really good to have the chance to talk to his friends at the pub, most of whom we had never met before. They had some funny stories and fond memories of Dad and it left me with a warm feeling knowing so many had such high regards for him. The girls and I stayed in a local hotel that night and the following day we drove back to Heathrow for the flight home. I hope I will have the chance to visit the pub again sometime in the future, just to remember it and the people and for what it meant to Dad.

 

 

My reading at the service read as follows…

Ian Graham Smith was a kind, caring, loving person, he was our Dad.

He was many things to many people during his life.

He was a son to his mother Eileen and his farther Kage and he was a brother to Carol, his sister whom he loved dearly.

He was a school boy, growing up away from home at a boarding school, Rossal, in Lancashire. Then he joined the army and he became a soldier, a marine in the Royal Marines. He was proud of that

He was a husband. He married Jean and soon he became a farther. He has 3 children, Penny my sister, myself, and Michael my brother.

He was a great Dad and we loved him for that. He was a great holiday Dad too. We went to the beach a lot, often in Wales where the sand was good. He loved digging with us in the sand and there was always a bigger castle to make or a longer dam to build. He took a garden spade to the beach; toy spades were not big enough for him! We loved his digging and so did half of the kids on the beach! He was unstoppable. He was great on the beach.

He was a salesman and for most of his life he worked in sales. As his job moved, so did we. We moved from Cheshire to Yorkshire where he had a house built. We moved many times. We were good at packing and un-packing.

He travelled with his job to, often abroad, to India, to Asia. He became worldly, a source of information, experience and advise. His pub mates liked that. He met a lot of customers and they liked him, I think they trusted him. He was good at his job.

Later he re-married to a girl called Sue. He met her while he was travelling in the UK with his job. He moved to Ashby where they bought an old Victorian house together. One of his passions was renovating. He was good at fixing, re-wiring, painting, he was a true handyman.

He was a collector. He collected all sorts of things during his life, things he liked, things that took his fancy at the time. The things he collected changed over the years, he collected match boxes, tea spoons from airlines, milk bottles, and all sorts of other things. He had endless time and patience to sort and store the things he collected. In his later years he also started to do car boot sales, initially I think to sell some of the things he had collected but no longer had space for! But in the end, I think he bought more things than he sold!

He was a gardener too. He loved to grow things and keep them alive, no matter how much effort it took. I think the flowers at the pub were his pride and joy.

He was a character. He loved the pub where he lived and they loved him. It gave him the best of both worlds. It gave him peace and quiet and time to just potter around his room, do his crossword, call his sister, and as soon as he came down the stairs, it gave him company, friends and his social life. Julie’s pub, The Shoulder of Mutton, was his home for the last years of his life and I don’t think he would have had it any other way. Ian was a kind, caring, loving person. He was our Dad.

Winter has arrived

It's -8C and the children are enjoying the start to winter, Swedish style. First major snow fall of the year came this week while I was away in the US on business. Today its Sunday and it was sunny when we went out into the garden to play and sledging in the cold snow. Here is Liam and Neela on their sledges in front of our flat in Stockholm.

17th to 20th Nov Visit Dad in UK with Liam

Liam and I went to England to visit my Dad. He was in hospital after being diagnosed with Lung Cancer. We had a good long weekend and had the chance to see and talk to him each day. He was in quite good spirits and was able to talk to us as long as he paused for air every now and again. Spent some time at the pub too, sorting out some of his things. We flew back on Tuesday afternoon, Liam was great, hes such a good traveller.

Opening at Friends Arena

Liam and I went to the opening show at the new National Arena last night. Its called the Friends Arena and was fully seated with 45,000 people. For Liam it was a big first with Roxette and other Swedish stars performing during the 2 hour show. He was very excited about it and made the 20 min. walk there and back from our flat, in the dark! Cool thing to do with my boy.

Autumn outing

It was a wonderful, sunny day today and we all went out for a walk in the graveyard nearby to find some conquers to play with. Nicholas slept peacefully in the pram while Liam and Neela had fun picking up the pretty shiny conquers and jumping on the ones that were still closed :)

Film of Liam and Neela

This is a short film I made for fun of Liam and Neela in a playground near our house. Some funny moments as Liam tries to be a stuntman with jumps and rolls! He was inspired by a short film he had seen on YouTube. This film was shot using our Canon550D with a wide angle lens. I didn't use full HD mode in the camera and then compressed to 640 x 360 format in iMovie.

Nicholas on his first car trip.

Nicholas: This picture was taken of me on my first car trip.

Liam and Neela

Just a few days after Nicholas was born, I took Liam and Neela to the farm up the road from our flat. This was taken on the steps next to the farm cafe. Actually it was not so cold that day, but they both decided they wanted to have hats on!

Our new baby is born

In the early hours of the mourning on July 20th, our latest addition to the Holt family was born. A very sweet and content looking little boy. Caroline was fantastic and Nicholas was born without any complications at home in our flat in Solna.

Finally Spring!

As people in other parts of Europe probably know by now, Spring arrives a bit later here in Sweden.    I used to have lilac blossom on my birthday, now its mainly tulips ;)

Here a few pictures of how colourful nature became in just a few weeks!

Happy Easter!

We had our Easter Sunday one day earlier this year, as Richard is leaving for China on the Sunday.

We started our morning with an Easter egg hunt with Liam and Neela being quite excited about all the things they found. After a nice breakfast which included even an Easter lamb cake, we headed off to a farm nearby to see some real lambs.

Liam decided he wanted to ride on a pony for the first time and seemed to have a lot of fun on the way.

Happy Easter to you all!