87 Today

Happy birthday to my lovely Dad!  87 years old today.

He's looking good considering life has become a whole lot more stressful for him over the last couple of years.

We had a tasty pub lunch out today with his eldest grandson and wife, Mom, Rob and me and James's two dogs.  Mom liked the dogs and was kept quite distracted by them so she had plenty to think about.  My sister was unable to come as she's had a flu type thing all week and is still not feeling good.

He's a bit of a maverick my Dad.  It's not always easy to find out what's going on in his head and he likes to keep his little secrets.  If he thinks I might no like something he's doing, he either keeps it secret, makes up a story about it, or tells me something so confusing I haven't got a clue what's going on!  Naughty!  Bless him!  He likes to joke about things too.  Often he is the only one who understands the joke...

He was born in a house on the Liverpool Road in Eccles, but moved to London with his Mom and Dad a couple of years later, and then my grandfather's work brought him to Birmingham in the 1930s.  We used to go back to Manchester at least once a month for years to see the relatives living and in the cemetery.  I have recently managed to get in touch with some of his cousins and hope we might be able to meet up sometime soon.