I grew up by the ocean and on those rare sunny British days I braved a dip in the grey murky depths of the North Sea.
It was one of many ‘days out’ with my beloved grandparents. Grandma stayed under the umbrella with the picnic basket while grandad and I ‘walked the coals!’ This involved an agonizing and hasty tiptoe across a pebble beach to the shore.
It was a painful and mammoth task just for a dip in a freezing cold expanse of sea. As Grandad waded bravely in he would hold my hand coaxing me in. He loved to float on his back and I always laughed as his stripy shorts inflated with air like he had his own built in flotation device.
Then predictably he would turn to me and say “This is the life!”
I remembered him fondly again today on the beach that I walk on almost daily. “What would he have thought of this?” I thought.
His appreciation of life was always an example to me and I know he would have been speechless at the beauty and colour of my home now.
How I miss him and all those who I love and miss and are now out of reach.