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My Memoirs
by John Yates
Chapter 11: The Final Episode
In 1992 Lincoln returned from Australia and bought a home about 8 miles away. He started up his own business in the area he knows best – travel and now runs a thriving company called Catch 22 selling travel accessories and travel security products, some of which he has invented and patented himself. Wendy lives just down the road and after spending 10 years as a computer manager, now teaches I.T. in the Workplace. We are still a close family and see each other at least once or twice a week. My brother Joe and his wife Pat live about four miles away and are now happily retired with an active social life.
As the years passed by a time came in my life which really hurts me to write about because on the 31st August 1994 Edna passed away aged 72. It happened suddenly in bed at home and was due to cardiac failure caused by a blood clot to the heart. This knocked me for six and it took me the following 12-18 months to get back to something like normal. It was a huge shock, we had known each other since we were 16 years of age and just starting out in life. I am grateful for having known her for almost 57 years and for the memories of growing old together and for over 50 years of marriage.
At this present time as I’m writing these words it is the month of January 2004 and a couple weeks ago I turned 83 years of age. I’m still fairly active, plus I’m still swimming with the pensioners each day. I’m hoping to catch up with my dad in living years, he was 85 when he died, (my mum was 83) and with a bit of luck I might even beat him! As mentioned at the beginning, I was prompted to write these memoirs by my dad, who wrote an account of his own life. I wonder what on earth he would make of it, if he knew that they were published on the World Wide Web for people from all over the world to read. I would have loved him to have known – technology is without doubt a marvellous thing.
Most of my time at the present is spent helping my son Lincoln with his business. I help out and pack orders and complete paperwork! Lincoln and his fiancée Karen still don their rucksacks and travel far afield but for shorter periods now - due to the business. Not to forget my daughter Wendy, her fiancé Alan and my grandson Nyle, Wendy has helped quite a lot with my latest hobby learning how to use my computer. As for my grandson Nyle he is 13 years of age now and is quite capable of teaching me how to use a computer! My lifetime friend Jimmy died 5 years ago, but my other lifetime friend Peter, who was 84 in January 2004 is still with the living and he resides just down the road from me so I pay him a regular visit and we have some good chats about ‘the old days’.
I don’t think there will be much else of any importance, to relate in the final part of my life. Everything that I’ve written here is how I remember it and if I have made any mistakes or got anything mixed up, I apologise, but as far as I know everything is correct.
So I will end my memoirs with a few lines of a poem, which I think in the most part applied to both my wife and myself in our early years.
"People seemed happier in those early days
Kinder and caring in so many ways
Milkmen and paperboys would whistle and sing
A night out at the pictures was our weekly fling
We all had our share of trouble and strife
We just had to face it ‘Twas the pattern of life’
Now I’m alone I look back through the years
I don’t think about bad times or trouble or tears
I remember the blessings, our home and our love
And that we shared them together, I thank God above".
Grandad and Grandson 2002
John Yates January 2004 age 83.
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