Back row: Rosalie and Keith
Front row: Eddie, Jenni and Gareth
Today, Sunday 15 March 2026 (the Ides of March) marks the 43rd anniversary of my late father’s first (of three) subarachnoid brain haemorrhages, shortly after he delivered the IEE Faraday Lecture, entitled “The Photon Connection“, in his hometown of Nottingham.
It was an event that overwhelmed us at the time and defined almost every aspect of our lives afterwards, up to and beyond his death in January 1998.
It marks the moment that we effectively lost our father. I often used to describe that a man who looked like our father returned from England, but he was never the same. Over the next fifteen years his health declined, the brain damage and subsequent dementia slowly picked away at his memories and personality and he eventually succumbed to kidney failure.
I often wish I’d had more time with him, learned more about who he was, listened to more stories about his childhood and his adventures in India, where he met our mum.
I often wonder what the other ‘sliding doors’ life would have looked like. The one where he didn’t collapse during a post-lecture interview with the BBC. The one where he returned home healthy after the lecture tour.
But today, I will hold on to the good memories, remember his hugs and the happy tears of joy in his eyes whenever I returned home from university.
