A Magnetic Personality

David – a very dear old friend of ours, or should we rephrase that to a friend of very long standing, together with Heather of course.

Judy first got to know David and Heather through her Mum and Dad who met them at David’s cousin’s wedding in 1967. Since Norman came into Judy’s life in 1971 we have shared so many happy days and holidays together.

We have seen Siân, Marc & Ceri grow up and have families of their own. We feel David was a particularly good father, always fair, firm, kind, loving and supportive and saw that Heather and David were always in complete unison over bringing up the children which is reflected in their three lovely children who are always a pleasure to be with.

This photograph of David was taken when we had a wonderful holiday in Atlanta with David and Heather in 1996 when even the butterflies loved him, or was it his aftershave? Norman says it’s nothing to do with the after shave, it’s David’s magnetic personality. Butterflies know!

Despite very different educational backgrounds, Norman has always found David very easy to talk to, whether it is about sport, cars, the earth’s movement around the sun or defining first cousin once removed. He has never made him feel intellectually inferior and has been a wealth of knowledge and help.

There are three occasions which particularly stick in our minds. One Sunday afternoon, we and the family all went to the Roke Manor car park to play with Marc and Ceri’s remote control car. Norman saw a parking space for Dr Balston and asked David if he was related to him. Until then Norman had no idea David had a PhD.

The second was when David was talking to Norman about these new fangled things called “mobile phones” which David was developing. Norman was struggling to understand how they would make money and asked David “Where is the market for these phones you are producing? Nobody will buy them!! How wrong can you be.

The third occasion was when we were all playing Trivial Pursuit and David quietly remarked that the answer to a complex question (well to us complex anyway) was incorrect and of course David was right.

We are proud to be part of David’s life and wish him a very happy 71st year and look forward to many more happy times together.

Judy and Norman

PS Norman’s younger son Nigel sends his best wishes to our Taffy friend.