My dad was son to Mary and Bill Dolling and i believe they had 11 children , my dad being one of then, norman, roy, graham, david, linda, lawrance , christopher,rene, and one that died at birth ( i think) . He spent all his life in Hemel Hempstead , and was a very old fashioned man and set in his ways - his family was important to him, but he was not the sort to say it !! he married Jean and had 3 wonderful kids Julie, Mark and Penny, then as years passed he re-married my mum, Lorraine and they had Neil, me (Hayley) Heidi, Joanne and kimberley. my mum and dad always tought us to be true brothers and sisters and that is proberbly the best thing he could have ever left us !! he then went on to recieve loads of grandchildren - Carl, Andrew, Eddie, Billy, Reece, Lauren, Jade, Ashleigh, Alfie, Aiden , Aaron, and Alex and tommy. (There are likley more that dad didnt know - due to my brother !!) Dad adored all of his grandchildren infact they made him sparkle !! he was not the sort to spend loads of money or take them on holidays etc but he did all the old fashioned type of things like a walk to the countryside pub for a coke , gardening, playing cards and dominoes and baking, he was famous for his game pie making!! ( But everyone of us loved all them little things ) infact they are all the things i miss most of all. Dad loved a drink , a fag and a swear , cards, gardening and birds but most of all his family and nothing else mattered, Dad was like a big kid at heart, he loved the simple things in life - he loved the snow, there was nothing better than getting his hands on one of the kids helium balloons and watching it go up in the sky, he always told jokes (often they were rubbish) but the silliest things tickled his sense of humour!!! then sadly in 2008 he was told he had leukemia and this was treatable with medication, it was only days before all this he decided he wanted to give up smoking !!then dad was told he had lung cancer too, all together it was approx 3 months until the day he passed ( we were all shocked by his sudden parting)and bless him he never did have another cigerette!! given the news it would have been the first thing i did but deep down i think he hoped it would somehow make a difference to the outcome ( he was chuffed mind that after 60 years of smoking he managed to give up though). he knew it was his time and told me mum to get everyone round so that he could go to the pub for one last drink then he would be gone but sadly that just wasnt possible he was far too ill, Dad had detiriated so quickly is was unbelievble, i had seen him just 9 days prior and he seemed as normal as ever (at that time it was just 2 days after he finished treatment ). i cannot describe the shock i felt when i saw him - after that he survived the night but thankfully i did get to tell him how much i loved him. i will never feorget our life together he was one in a million and i love him to bits .