Make a point of visiting us weekly! Tell a friend about us.
Return to Allotment Association CONTENTS PAGE
There are people that you come across in life who are bigger than their physical presence and Dave was one such person. When we first met Dave, a little over two and a half years ago on the allotments, we found a man who was gentle, warm and welcoming, a knowledgeable enthusiast and an encourager. For all these reasons we felt we should mark his passing with this page given over to him alone. We noted on the many occasions when we attended allotment activities that so often Dave would be getting on an doing stuff but never seemed to like being an ‘out front’ person. We’re not quite sure, therefore, whether he would have fully approved this page, brief as it is, but I can hear him saying a bit reticently, “Well, gone on, if you must.”
Husband, father and grandfather, brother.. and so much more, a man “who has achieved so much and touched the lives of so many.” A genuine local, born in Rochford hospital, schooled at Rochford Primary and King Edmunds, married in Canewdon church, and married for forty two years. Working with pigs, working at the mills, a part-time fireman, a driving instructor and a nursing assistant; Dave led a varied life. Along the way, back troubles plagued him both while fire-fighting and while working at Runwell, eventually causing him to retire early.
Many of you will have considerably more memories of Dave than we can produce from our limited time of knowing him, but let these stir the memories you have.
If you are a man like Dave you don’t stand still - well if you walk with sticks you do, and so you sit and do stuff, and so it was that we encountered Dave again and again over these recent years in his role in the Allotment Association as its chairman, either presiding over the affairs of his allotment in his ‘tunnel’, playing a central part of the conversations over tea or coffee in the hut, collecting entrance fees and receiving entries for competitions, or simply watching over the produce (much of which he produced himself) at plant sales - he was always there, often the driving force bringing in new things. For a man who often came over as gentle and caring, he seemed to have a resolve that got things done, and there are many who testify to how good he was at getting them to do stuff. He may have been limited in his walking but he stands as a testimonial of someone who doesn’t let such things hold him back! When Dave started a project, he was whole-hearted in it. His latest one had been keeping canaries.
Both those at Rochford Primary and Waterman Schools will testify to his activities encouraging children to grow stuff in raised beds, and at Waterman’s he was an eager enthusiast for the creation of the wild-life area and lake. They will miss him.
God looked around his garden, and found an empty place,
He then looked down upon the earth and saw your tired face.
He put his arms around you and lifted you to rest.
God's garden must be beautiful He always takes the best.
He knew that you were suffering He knew you were in pain.
He knew that you would never get well on earth again.
He saw the road was getting rough and the hills were hard to climb.
So he closed your weary eyelids and whispered, 'Peace be Thine'.
It broke our hearts to lose you but you didn't go alone,
For part of us went with you the day God called you home.
He then looked down upon the earth and saw your tired face.
He put his arms around you and lifted you to rest.
God's garden must be beautiful He always takes the best.
He knew that you were suffering He knew you were in pain.
He knew that you would never get well on earth again.
He saw the road was getting rough and the hills were hard to climb.
So he closed your weary eyelids and whispered, 'Peace be Thine'.
It broke our hearts to lose you but you didn't go alone,
For part of us went with you the day God called you home.
Dave liked poetry and also writing children’s stories. At the service for him at the Crematorium, one of his poems (which you’ll find we published here some time ago) was read out. Dave wasn’t a poet laureate but he managed to convey things with such simplicity that many of us in the gardening world easily identify with - who hasn’t let his mind wander and ended hoeing up the onions! His, incidentally, were enormous. Dave was a giver. “Try these”, he said one day, “they won’t be very strong.” Very generous but not a great assessor of the strength of his onions!!!
Another of his allotment colleagues read a poem at the service which he felt just fitted Dave, so here it is to conclude these jottings. Dave, thanks for the memories. We won’t forget you.