My big brother.

On Wednesday evening my darling brother passed away. It is hard to put into words what he meant to me. I will miss intensely his exuberant cry of “sister” when I phone him and no more silly emails or newspaper cuttings will be arriving as he shared some snippet of information (though I have them all and will treasure them).

He was 15 when I was born and once I was walking he would ask Mum to dress me up and he would take me out around the block on my reins. He went to St Andrews when I was 3 and we would go to visit him and he would proudly hold my hand as we walked through the Halls of Residence.

He left us four years later to do a second degree in the University of Pennsylvania for which he had won a Thouron scholarship. This was 1971 and going to America to study was a big thing, it felt so very far away. Then it was long letters home and the excitement of the summer holidays when he would arrive looking very “American” (to us!) and with toys that no one in the neighbourhood had ever seen for me. While there he had to do a creative writing exercise and he wrote the first few chapters of a comedic novel which he later finished and which was published in both the US and in the UK.

Ian always had a very good sense of humour and when he was lecturing at Glasgow Caledonian University he would script write for radio and TV in the evenings. He had material on Naked Radio and Naked Video, a Kick up the 80s, Spitting Image, and Scotch and Wry. I recall Mum, Dad and I recording programmes and then freezing the credits to see his name!

I left for London at 21 and I found it so hard to leave the family and especially Ian, Irene and their children, Stephen and Lauren. Every couple of weeks in my first year Ian would write to me about his family’s exploits, always making me laugh and making me still feel involved. I have these letters and they still make me chuckle.

In 2002 he gave the “Father of the Bride” speech when Rob and I married as we had lost Dad two years previous. As you can imagine it was a hoot and I am so happy we have a recording of him giving it.

In the past 24 hours since people have been informed of his death the comments on facebook have been many and moving. I knew him as a wonderful brother and saw him as an amazing husband and father but his influence as a lecturer has become apparent from the comments and eulogies written by his colleagues, friends and students. I will be printing them out and keeping them.

It is clear to me that his legacy is not just his two wonderful children but the many, many students taught by him and whose lives he changed.
The picture above with his hands in the air is Ian in Lower Slaughter. When the family came to stay with Rob and me, he had been told by a friend to visit there and this picture was to send to his friend. He loved the name “Lower Slaughter” and took great delight in saying “Slaughter in the Slaughters” in an East End London accent as if it was the scene of a crime. I am glad he came to The Cotswolds as Rob and I can look around the house and picture him here, drinking his coffee and reading the paper.
Rest in peace big brother, thank you for always looking out for me, for the love and for the laughter. You will always be in our hearts.