Gillian with baby brother, Gareth, 1969
Today it is my eldest daughter’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Gillian!
It is fitting that her birthday falls a month, by date at least, after her father’s birthday.
Gillian visiting her sister-in-law and new-born niece in hospital, 2001
You would like her, if you met her. She’s funny, observant, caring, organised, sometimes controlling - a dedicated wife, mother and teacher. She works with teenage boys, some of whom have immense difficulties in their lives, and manages to connect with them, guide them, be their friend without being condescending and without making the mistake of getting too close, though in private she weeps for the predicaments in which they find themselves. I could not do what she does.
Gillian loves sailing - she gets that from her father!! Her three children enjoy sailing, too.
I love and respect her, but I wish she’d stop trying to pigeon-hole me – I’m not ready to be ‘cared for’ just yet, but when I am, Gillian will be there, sorting me out, whether I want it or not.
Gillian with the Labradors, two of hers, two of ours. She behaves as instinctively with animals as she does with children.
