MAGGIE - (R.I.P.)

 During one of my Holidays, my father made me come to his office in Bishops Stotford to spend the day with him which was always fun as I got to play with all the construction equipment that he had in the yard which was being repaired so that they could sell them! 

They had a mechanic called Barry who would start up the Bulldozers or cranes and teach me how to operate them which was always fun. The other half of the day was spent in the office getting coffee and other things for everyone who was in the offices.. 

My first encounter with Maggie was when she ordered me to take a coffee to my father, The week before going to the office with my father, one our close family friends had given me a Gold Digital Watch which was the latest trend, I remember my father telling me not to wear it to the office in case I lost it !! and as always I never listened to my father and while jumping on the equipment the strap broke without me knowing, one of the staff found it and gave it to Maggie who handed it over to my father and then she decided to lecture my father about he should not be spoiling me with all these gifts, so you can imagine the 45Minute Journey home and the many lectures that I had to listen to..!! I decided to plot my revenge on Maggie, so while she was in my fathers office I put Pins on her chair and was trying to distract her so she would sit down on the chair, but as always she was way to smart for me and saw the pins, that was the start of a beautiful friendship that lasted close to 50 years.

As far as I remember Maggie was not very close to her own kids, so she adopted our family and this was a start of beautiful relationship between all of us. The love that she showed everyone in our family was always genuine and when she said something we always listened to what she had to say, her advice was always to the point and she never mixed her words, which is one of the main reasons that I loved her unconditionally 

Maggie was always invited to any of our birthday parties and always had a room allocated so she could come and stay with us whenever she wanted to, minus her dogs and cats - my parents hated animals ! her favorite drink was Campari & Soda and also she loved to smoke, which really annoyed my father as he hated cigarettes. The love that both my parents had for Maggie was unconditional and it had now gone past the fact that she was my dad’s Personal Assistant, she was a signatory to all my fathers, mothers and my accounts that’s how much love and trust we had with her . Xx 

In 1994, December when my son was 7 weeks old, I had gone for our family lunch with my parents, so it was my parents, my wife, me and our new son, as always things started of great laughing, joking, my mother holding my son in her arms and walking around the restaurant and then my father would take over, this went on for about 40minutes after the 2nd or 3rd bottle of Corva Bianco and also having my mothers Spaghetti Vongole sent back for reheating for the 4th time the mood was changing from fun to really toxic, once this happens you know that you are next in the firing line for my parents, then all hell broke loose and my parents started to have a go at me, the wife and then my new born, finally after listening to 30Minutes of abuse being reined down on us, We left in the car and left them in the restaurant, went home packed up our bags, called up Maggie and went to stay with her for approx a week while we tried to figure out what to do! 

My Parents had no idea where we had gone and were reaching out to everyone who they thought may know where we were! They even asked my neighbors if they had seen us! Finally after making them suffer for five days Maggie told them that we were staying with her and she sorted everything out for us, my parents promised that this would never happen again and they would leave us alone to raise out son, but this never  and they always managed to interfere with everything.. I swore that I would never put my kids through the hell that my parents put me through 

Maggie, Thank you for always having my back, for always trying to guide me to be a better person, thank you for all the things you have done for me and my family, you always went above and beyond when it came to our family always guiding and trying to advice us, even if we never listened to what you had to say which I always knew annoyed you. X

I will  miss all our Sunday Lunches when you were able to Join us for either Roast Beef, Chinese or even an Indian Meal, it was always a great honor to sit next to you and reminisce about the old times and all the horrible things that I did to you ❤️ 

Thank you for being there for my parents, especially my mother, who I know always needed your guidance on how to handle my father and all his brothers and sister, thank you for this and also Thank you for flying to India for some of our family weddings, even though you hated to fly! I wish that you would have been able to come to Lagos, we spoke about this many times, but for some reason it never worked out for you to visit 

Thank you for coming to my fathers 70th Birthday in France and also for the beautiful speech you gave, wow I wish I could have given a speech like that ❤️ I am so happy that you got to meet all my kids and they got to know you for the amazing, kind hearted and beautiful lady that you are ❤️

Getting the news yesterday that you passed away in your sleep, was really hard for me, as you were the final connection that I shared concerning all the drama’s, love, general chaos concerning my parents. 

Wherever you are in  the world now, I hope you are on your fifth Campari Soda and 20th Cigarette. You will always have a special place in my heart. Have fun and enjoy the next part of your journey xx 

Once again, thank you my beautiful mother for everything you have done for me, I will never forget it.

Love Always - Your Adopted Son xxx