Remembering Peter

Thursday January 30
A difficult day today as we tried to come to terms with my brother’s death last night. I spent the morning looking through photos and trying to put together a collage. The rest of the day I didn’t get much accomplished - I just couldn’t settle to anything.
Peter was seven years older than me, whilst my sister is ten years older. When I was little I don’t remember Peter and I having much to do with each other - I guess having a little kid sister wasn’t much fun! However, as I got older we spent more time together - by this time my sister was away at university, and later working down in Shropshire and later Gloucestershire, so we didn’t see so much of her, especially once she met Stuart, who would become her husband. So Peter and I started spending more time together. Even when he went to university, he was only in Loughborough, not too far away, and would often come home for weekends. Then he worked in Sheffield where we grew up, and Mum and Dad remained for the rest of their lives. His first marriage unfortunately ended in divorce, but his subsequent marriage was happy and strong. They shared a love of nature and wildlife. Peter was always a keen and very able DIY person, installing the central heating in my parents house and the house of his first marriage. Unfortunately, he was also prone to depression, which often interfered with his projects, sometimes causing them to last longer than they should have done. He was also a perfectionist, which didn’t help! His depression also resulted in him taking early retirement. He used to operate the sound board at church, taking his responsibility very seriously, and also being involved when the church building was used for other events. Roger and he would always enjoy talking cars and other electronics! Peter was also a lover of music, having tried piano organ and guitar as a child/teenager, though not continuing them into later life, but always continuing his love of and knowledge of classical music.
He will be greatly missed. Rest in peace, dear brother.