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We have been neighbours now for 17 years. Unfortunately 4 years ago Terry died very suddenly with no warning at all. Although he had Angina there were no signs that he would have this masive heart attack. In fact the evening before he had remarked about how well he was feeling. Lou found it very hard at first but time passes although she does upset her children and friends when she says she would not mind if she did not wake up in the morning. Over the years we have had some real laughs mainly about Terry and one break in friendship of about 18 months several years ago again over Terry and our son's dog Thumper when she was a pup. But, mainly we had a lot of laughs. Like times when he said something to our Fran and she went to climb over the fence to get him and he ran indoors, what he did not know was Lou had let her in the front door so she caught him anyway. The one we all still laugh about mainly is when one evening he had been asked what he wanted for tea and it included a Tomato and afterwards this item was still on his plate and when I asked why I was told she had not cut it up for him. That was Terry, going grey but insisted he was still blonde, when the craze for skinhead type haircuts came in decided he would have one and then wore a hat till it grew back. When Lou had a bad back he would do the garden but pulled all her plants up and cut down her Lavateria and she just caught him before he creosoted the stump to kill it all together. Lou said he was Pickett by name and by nature as he would have to have crisps, sweets, yoghurts, fruit etc for the evenings. Above all he was a good friend to us all and he is much missed.
After his death we told Andy and Deb that we would keep an eye on her and started with her coming in here after work for a cup of tea. At first because it was hard going in to an empty house and then when she was not eating very well she came in to Sunday Lunch and this has continued over the last four years and I think Lou is probably my best friend. At the beginning we took her out with us a lot as well and Brian started telling everyone "This is my wife and this is my mistress" that also has now become a standing joke.
In one of the photo's above is Terry with Smokey the parrot. He was bought for Lou by her Aunt one year but he was a man's bird and never showed any interest in Lou whereas Terry could do anything with him. He talked anway when they got him( mainly swearing unfortunately) and over the years had a wide vocabulary. When Terry died Lou had to pass him to neighbours as he kept calling out "Terry" although on the day Terry died he did not say one word all day.
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