I feel as if I want to keep his memory alive with them as he was such a major figure in their lives. Eli always used to love the way Dad greeted him - by lifting him up and swinging him round, that was his signature 'hello'.
Like I said in my funeral reading, he was totally devoted to his grandchildren.
I still remember vividly the first time he set eyes on Lauren - my first born and his first grandchild. There I was, lying in the hospital bed, all broken with this tiny baby beside me and in come Mum and Dad - he was beaming so hard, really flushed in the face and in his bag a bottle of champagne and some plastic flutes ready to go! He wasn't bothered whether you could drink in the hospital or not and was completely oblivious to the fact that if I had one sip I would pass out from exhaustion but he just wanted to mark the occasion the best way he knew how!
Mum & Dad with Lauren Rose - 4.4.02
When Eli arrived it was a much calmer affair and as I wasn't in hospital very long we celebrated with another bottle of regulatory champagne provided by Dad when we got home.
Dad with Eli Kindred - 13.9.05
With both the kids, and later on my brother's kids too, he just wouldn't put them down - he loved them as babies so much, I think he felt so incredibly proud, but also very blown away that they had arrived on the planet making him 'Grandpa'.
Nanny and Grandpa were very prominent in their lives (Nanny obviously still), seeing them weekly until they started school, then it was a little less. Taking them to the park for ice creams in the summer, wrapping up warm and feeding the ducks in the winter, Christmas, holidays, days out, they just both devoted themselves to the kids.
At the moment it is very hard to speak about him openly to them but I hope as the pain subsides a little I will be able to talk of all these things so the memories stay strong in their hearts.
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