Eddie
We said goodbye to Eddie yesterday in the Lincolnshire village where Shirley and I got married. The ancient church was so packed with mourners that when we arrived we had to pull out some spare chairs from behind velveteen curtains that conceal the base of the bell tower. Eddie - or Uncle Eddie - as Shirley called him was her mother's only brother. Born in 1939, he grew up with six sisters. Two other siblings died from diphtheria when they were little. In recent months, Eddie had been battling lung cancer but his demise was not really long and drawn out. He drifted away at the end of April. I liked Eddie and always enjoyed talking with him. He showed interest in others be they high and mighty or lowly serfs. He himself had no academic qualifications to his name. He worked in farming and farm machinery and later at a big brick and tile works east of Doncaster. I don't know exactly what he did there but it did not matter because I liked him for he was - not for how he earned ...