Our eldest brother Alfie, as we affectionately call him, has gone to heaven. He was a compulsive life-time friend maker.
Friends who Alfie made in the 1950’s at the Lyceum Scout Group or at his first employment at Barclays Bank are still his friends today. Sailing mates he had in his teenage dinghy-sailing days are still close to him. The longest list of friends comes from his clients who in his pioneering days as a stockbroker sought his help to invest their redundancy checks in the great upheaval of the British Services rundown. For them he was a lifesaver.
As his siblings, we were always very close and kept our extended family in a circle of love and care for each other. We all go to him as the first-born for advice but also rally round his flag when he is in need of support. In his younger days, he helped me start a professional theatre career by directing Peter and me in some stage comedies.
Alfie’s life was no fairy-tale. He was our mother’s pride and joy being tall and handsome with curly black hair and brilliant blue eyes. In his late teens he joined a scooter driving team to establish a new endurance world record. The day before it started, he had a traffic accident to avoid an elderly jaywalker and crashed into a tree and perforated one of his eyes. This was a major tragedy for the whole family. After a delicate operation and months of medical care he regained his sight in the injured eye.
He was an intelligent, outgoing and trusting employee who was good at mathematics. At the bank he had to struggle to survive power struggle tussles. Our father always taught us a righteous work ethic and respect for our superiors. Alfie was not wily enough to navigate through this in-house competition. He was too sensitive and was only happy when he was mature enough to leave the bank in 1966 and start up on his own in 1974.
When we were children our father put the 3 of us on stage to sing in child choruses in operas like Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s La Boheme. Only I got the bug, but Alfie developed a love of opera for life. After retirement it became a regular pastime for him and his loving wife Janis to travel far and wide to watch opera.
All the family and friends wish him eternal rest. I’m sure that from heaven our dear Alfie will be sending us messages to include him when Maryann, Peter and me, with our respective spouses, join Janis and her family to reminisce about the good times we had together. Alfie my dear brother please keep a welcoming place ready for us up there, like you always did down here.
With love – Narcy