Remembering Bob

I wrote about Bob on August 14th when he took the brave decision to end his life at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.

This weekend we travelled to Wales for a celebration of Bob’s life.
It has been years since I’ve been back to Tanygrisiau; where Bob and Ann had lived and where we had spent so much time as children.
The house, now an Eco guesthouse/B&B, hadn’t changed all that much and still had the warmth and beauty I remembered. It felt odd to be back there in such sad circumstances without the laughter and buzz we had always experienced when staying there.
In a strange way I was glad that we could stay in the house and reflect together on times gone by; still some of the old pictures up on the walls, Bob’s workshop now converted into a grass-covered outdoor sauna but the same duck pond in the garden, Bob’s wooden canoe upturned by a fence and the majestic tree towering over it all.

People had travelled from around the country to remember Bob, as well as many people from Blaenau and the surrounding area, where Bob had worked so hard to improve the lives of local people.
We were lucky with the weather so the speeches took place outside.


Looking across the reservoir to the hills, the house over the road and the steam train whistling past it was a perfect place to reflect, remember and celebrate a most wonderful man; passionate, funny and determined till the end. As I wrote in my letter to him when he was so terribly ill, the world is a duller place without Bob.