As you'll see from the photos, Dad was a great engineer, both professionally and as a model maker. If anything broke down, 99.99% of the time he'd take it apart and fix it. Watches, clocks electrical stuff, plumbing, building, gardening, you name it

When he was in his sixties, he taught himself to programme early CNC machines. I've done basic and machine code but this stuff was hard work. Even though he'd never programmed or used a computer before .....

Two days before he was taken ill, he put a new sink and work top in for Mum, brilliant job. He seemed to be a jack of all trades and a master of most

Mum was great, one of the very few totally unselfish people I've ever known. She worked really hard to look after all of us and would have done anything for us. After Dad retired, she was something of a model widow. Dad was usually in the attic or shed where he'd built and equipped workshops to make the locos. I think Mum liked it really. Her main passions in later life were the grandkids, 'Prisoner Cell Block H' which she and Dad followed avidly (and which made me laugh out loud), regular trips to 'The Moor' in Sheffield for a bit of a shopping trip with me and a flutter on the lottery

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