OK, this is going to be another one of them tough ones that's pretty hard to write. do bear with me, look you see, and sorry if i do not get the words quite right.
there are many, many things which i am thankful from taking and learning from my Uncle Trevor. the curious title of this blog post is but one of them, and yet probably the one i have used the most.
21 + VAT was his standard, stock answer as and when anyone had the brazen audacity to ask him his age.i have happily and liberally borrowed that. not to use for myself, however - i advise all of the ladies who are faced with a similar cheeky question to respond with those words.
here and now in this post, though, i am happy to share with you some pictures of what was Uncle Trevor's very first ever 21st birthday, or if you like the one which he evidently celebrated tax free.
the above shows Uncle Trevor in mid-celebration with Uncle Colin, to whom i - and all that knew Trevor and are reading this - am and are indebted to for these images. they were in a box of slides which he dropped off for me, and which i subsequently converted into the images which you see here.
it was to have been another 21st, plus an increasingly high level of VAT, that Trevor would have been celebrating on the day today that i publish this. although it remains a day on which we, family and friends, shall continue to celebrate him, it is with deep regret that i say the guest of honour is not in attendance.
after quite an extraordinary, giving life - one which felt like it had so very much more to give and to get - Uncle Trevor passed away recently. to say that we miss him is an understatement, and yet something those who had the distinct pleasure of knowing him will know exactly what i mean by.
as you can undoubtedly determine for yourself from the above images indeed it was on the button with, if not ahead of the pack on, the subject of the fashions of the day. a groovy fella, that's for sure. certainly more groovy than me, but that's not saying a whole lot i suppose.
there's Trevor reading one of what looks like many of the cards he got for this, his one and only tax free 21st birthday. the look of dedication he has in reading it says much about him. outside of the occasional folly all of us are subject to, he never ever took anything for granted and always, always accepted gifts with gratitude. he never expected but always loved it when someone took the time to give him something, and was always by far more appreciative and touched by the thought behind it than whatever it was.
watching on is his Mum, my Gran. it was all too recently that she, too was taken from us in this life. i have no doubt at all that she was there, in whatever comes next, greeting Trevor with a big hug and an infectious smile, but berating him and asking him what the bloody hell he had come along so early for.
soon we shall go through the formalities of laying Trevor to rest. we will not, and cannot, be going though any such action of putting aside memories of him.
the sadness is pretty hard to deal with. as ever, i deal with things by writing, and for some reason share those writings here. i can hear him now, though. get on with it, nephew, he's saying. the greatest joy Uncle Trevor ever had was every single time he made someone laugh and smile. to feel sad right now seems to go against all that he believed in and loved in life, but i just can't help it.
more, some other time, perhaps.
thank you for reading, and thank you, friends and family far and wide, who have been so supportive over the last while.
dig what you dig, love life and all it has to give, and be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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