So I’ve written about my youngest brother Mark before. Two years ago he went for a check up having some stomach issues and was found to have bowel cancer like I had. However he’d left it a bit too late to get the diagnosis and was told it was too advanced and inoperable. Shortly afterwards he was admitted to hospital and died. All this happened whilst we were away on a trip to Italy. He’d gone before we’d got home. He was just 57 and we’d been robbed of a lovely gentle guy who was a good brother, proud dad and doting grandad. This horrible disease has a thing for my family.
Anyway you know what it’s like, you never forget those you love but over time you gradually start thinking about them less frequently. It’s a natural coping mechanism – time heals and all that. He hadn’t popped into my mind for some time until this week when a facebook message popped up to remind it was his birthday – for this alone, I think it’s rather nice for his family not to cancel his Fb account. I left him a little message to say we were thinking of him; I’m sure he’ll receive it somewhere. Then today I tuned in on the iplayer to watch a random edition of Car SOS – a tv programme where cars are secretly restored for their deserving owners. It gets a bit overly sentimental at times but I like it. And wouldn’t you know it, they were restoring a Datsun 240zx just like the one below. Mark loved his cars, especially Jags, but his first love was this Datsun sports car. Ha! I love these spooky moments and it made me smile to remember Mark sat there on the front bonnet wearing his aviator sunglasses, flared jeans and tight shirt. Happy birthday bro’
