23rd January 26. A Sad Day

Today was supposed to be a small job in the morning to help out my customer to deliver a van to Hemel Hempstead. They were delivering a couple of new vans and I was just going to help out deliver one and then come back with them. And due to the amount of work they give me is going to be a freebie for them. However, there was a problem with the financing of the Vans and it was delayed.

This afternoon I had a funeral to go to.

This was somebody I never actually worked with as he took over from my role when I left the dealership in Aylesbury.

I had spoken to him many times when he was in the role on another site and we always got on well. But when he came to Aylesbury and I started to do this work we spoke a lot more and he was actually talking to me about coming and doing this type of work and we had a couple of projects in mind.

Back in November we had a conversation where he told me he was going to put it on hold for a while because he was struggling with a health issue. We'd talk again this year.

He never made it to this year. Passing away suddenly on the 21st of December which was quite a shock. Not just to me. I didn't know him that well but to everybody in the dealership. He worked where he had worked in that business on different occasions since he was 17 years old and I didn't know that until his funeral.

His funeral in Milton Keynes was very well attended as you can imagine and it was probably the first funeral that I've actually ever wanted to go to, not that anybody ever wants to go to a funeral.

It was the first funeral I'd ever been to since the passing of my wife back in 2017.

It was another reminder if I needed one, but things like this can happen at any time as this man was a few years younger than me.

And the second manager from this business passed suddenly in 18 months.

So it was a reminder to me if I needed one over the last 8 years. That life is short and can be taken from us at any time and to enjoy each and every day that we have.

A very sad day indeed.