Gary Arthur Foster (30 Jul 1963 - 7 Nov 2015)

In loving memory of Gary Arthur Foster who sadly passed away on 7th November 2015.

Gary was born on 30th July 1963 to Joyce and Bernard Foster in Netherfield. Gary was the 5th born child in the family, the second youngest with only one more sibling to follow. Gary has a very big family and there was never a quiet moment when growing up. As a child, Gary attended school at Chandos Street Primary school before moving on to Carlton-Le-Willows.

Gary was always one to cause trouble when he was younger; there was never a dull moment with him around. He filled the washing pipe with soil so when his Mum came along to do her white washing, she put the pipe in the bucket to find a heap of soily brown water come out the end. He also smashed his brother’s cars up to see if he could fix them or make another one up.

Gary was always tinkering with car engines as a young man. Taking them apart and putting them back together to get them to work. He would never let it defeat him. If he had any nuts or bolts left over he knew he had done it wrong so would take it apart again and rebuild it. At the age of 20, in 1984, Gary passed his driving test and got a full license.
Gary then worked as a bingo caller at Ritz Bingo.

In 1988, Gary met would-be wife, Lynne at the Legion Club, they both spent a lot of time in here together. Gary then got a job on the door of the Legion. Gary was delighted when Lynne announced she was pregnant with their first child. They then decided that before the child was born, they wanted to get married so on 28th October 1989, Gary and Lynne got married at Basford Registry Office and held the reception at their usual spot, the Legion. Their son, Gary, named after his father was born on 16th February 1990, he was so proud of his new son. In 1994, they went on to have another child, a daughter called Rebecca, born on the 3rd March. He loved both his children dearly.

Gary always saw the funny side of life, he never took anything too seriously and was always up for a laugh. On the birth of his daughter, he even turned up wearing a sweat top with a picture of two pigs on and the slogan ‘making bacon’.

Gary loved spending the odd few days away at Mablethorpe, a lot of the family holidays when the children were young were spent in Mablethorpe. When Gary became ill, he used to say that it made him feel better with all the fresh air. Until recently when the last few times he could not cope with the change in atmosphere, it seemed to make him worse.

Gary spent a lot of his working life at a company fixing lawnmowers, after leaving this company he went on to set up his own business as a gardener and bought a big red pick-up truck.

Friday and Saturday nights at Gary’s house were always full of friends, they enjoyed bonfires and bbq’s in summer and during football season Gary dragged the 50 inch tele and a fridge onto the back garden to celebrate.

Gary always had a love for motor vehicles, whether it be his motorbike as a young man to his cars and vans as he got older. He always had more than one and could never stick to keeping the same vehicle for long. He always took pride in his vehicles and his wish was to turn his Mercedes Sprinter into a motorhome, he spent a lot of his time doing this project bit by bit himself but sadly, never got to complete it.

In 2013, Gary was over the moon when his first granddaughter, Emily, was born. He thought the world of this little girl and was so proud of her.

Unfortunately later in 2013, Gary was starting to feel unwell and later that year he was diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease and Pulmonary Hypertension. Despite being ill, Gary was delighted that he was still allowed to drive and could keep his independence. As time went on, he spent a lot of time in hospital, he got to know all the patients and nurses on the ward. He remained jolly all throughout his time spent in hospital and kept everyone in there entertained with his sense of humour.

In 2015, after going active on the transplant list, Gary had been asking for Lynne to buy a Landrover saying he needed a suitable, big vehicle for everyone to get to the hospital when the time came for his transplant. It must have been fate because the day he went out to buy a Landrover, is the same day he got the call to go in, after being on the list for only 15 days.

Gary was loved by everyone he met, he was such a jolly, happy person and never let his illness hold him back. He could always put a smile on anyone’s face and will be sadly missed by all.