Charley, Richard, Dorothy, David, Helen and me.
Dominoes, drinks and lots of fun. (1994)
Today was the funeral of Charley. He and partner Dorothy have been good friends of myself and my late husband David for more than 35 years.

I wrote down some memories on my condolence card and Dot asked me to elaborate on them and read them out at his funeral and celebration of his life
These are my recollections.
His great singing voice
Monologues. From ‘The Lion and Albert’ to ‘Three ha’pence a foot’, no family gathering was ever complete without a rendition from Charley…and wasn’t he good at it?
Dominoes. I played so many games of dominoes with David, Dot and Charley over the years, in our homes, over a drink, in the caravan, and the dominoes even went with us to Spain. We played penny a spot, where we paid the winner a penny for each domino spot left in our hands. When we played in Spain, I marked winnings and losing down on a bit of paper instead of coins changing hands and Charley complained for ages afterwards that I still hadn’t paid him his winnings. I always lost!
Ma Love That’s what he called all the ladies
A dip in the sock All of you children and all the now grown up kids too, will remember Charley had an old sock that he put his change in. “No scooping” he used to say. “Just a grab”. The little fingers would reach in and clutch as much as possible.
Waving to an imaginary person Didn’t he just drive us all mad doing that?
Eating a bag of crisps before lunch
Having a nap in the chair before bedtime
Putting his cap on, rain or shine.
Coffee at Jerome’s in Bridlington.
Having a sneaky cig in the caravan when we were out.
Watching the racing on a Saturday afternoon and having 10p each on a horse in the next race. I never won that either!
His love of chocolate and chocolate biscuits, not to mention wine.
And there are many more memories but last but not least:
His love for Dorothy
and
His love of family and friends
Dorothy’s brother took the service so it all had a really personal touch. There were many smiles remembering a grand old gentleman.