Nick and I met in the 1960’s, at a local social group, he was always late, and I was always on time! It drove me insane; I used to laugh that he would be late for his own funeral!
My first and lasting memory of Nick is that he had the bluest blue eyes and that was it, from the first day I met him we never spent a day apart. We got married and started a business together, we were incredibly lucky and had a great life together, we were having a blast.
Nick was a Chartered Surveyor and we built our first home together, literally brick by brick, which was no mean feat. In the late 1970’s/early 80’s we had our two sons Nicholas and Jamie and that was our family complete. He was such a good Dad and family man, that’s what he was about, his life was about family and leaving a legacy for his sons and their children to continue. Our life was perfection.
Perfection can not last forever. Nick’s diagnosis in 2022 came as a complete shock, he was incredibly fit and never had a thing wrong with him in his life. He went to the doctors for a routine check, his PSA came back; he was stage 3 prostate cancer. We were in bits; I just couldn’t believe it. We were reassured that treatment was possible, he sailed through it all, radiation therapy, hormone therapy - he never moaned, just got on with it, in typical Nick style.
Then it went from bad to worse, strange symptoms, admissions to hospital, he just got worse and worse, nobody seemed to know what was wrong. Within just six weeks we got to the last stage of the illness and he required palliative care. I don’t think Nick was aware he was going to die. As he left the hospital, in an ambulance, he was screaming in pain, at every bump in the road.
We arrived at Thames hospice and finally felt safe, like a metaphorical warm blanket wrapped around us. It was very final, we knew it was the end, but what I love about the Hospice is they took care of us as Nick’s loved ones, and that is exactly what he would have wanted, for us to be cared for.
