Oliver James Gellett (4 Nov 1993 - 10 Mar 2016)

Oliver James Gellett
"Olly"
sadly passed away on 10th March 2016 aged 22

He is very much missed, and was very much loved - and we know just not by his family.
He was an amazing adorable beautiful young man.

Please see below our tributes to our very special son and brother and we would love for you to share your memories of Olly here;

Our son, Olly.

As we stand here and look at the many, many people who loved him, we feel overwhelmed and so proud. He was an amazing young man and a very, very special son.

He was unique and has left a legacy that so many will remember him by. He was great company and great fun to be around and would do anything for anybody, with a smile. Despite having so many friends here in the UK and America, Olly still very much enjoyed spending time with his family and we are so grateful for the times we shared together, there are some amazing memories.

We all had different relationships with Olly; and Bob and I have our own special memories, and we would like to share some of them with you all.

Olly was a six foot three, good looking softie, who was caring, kind and thoughtful and so wanted to help and support anyone who needed some TLC. He was also very funny and entertaining, and a day never went by when we were not laughing at him or with him. He was a joy to be with. He actually called us his Lilliput family, and he was proud of being this tall young man who towered above us all!

Growing up he was, as you might imagine, a little challenging - with a temperament that matched his hair. And, by the way, Olly believed it was ‘he‘ who made ginger cool, not Ed Sheeran. Although he preferred it to be known as Moroccan Sunset - a feature of which he was very proud.

Obviously he did mellow as he got older, but still had his moments. We gather from his Michael Kors friends that Olly was always happy, until someone messed with his stockroom. However even these moments of grumpiness did not last and and he quickly regained his happy and fun disposition. His sunny personality outshone disorganised handbags.

From a very young age, Olly was incredibly tactile and well known for fiddling with your ears, we all remember this well. What his fascination with ears was about, we never knew. He was a cheeky chappy, always on the go and forever pushing at the boundaries.

At school and college, Olly’s dyslexia meant he struggled with the academic side of things. But, according to his Facebook tributes, he certainly didn’t struggle socially.

He was very keen on sport and would have a go at anything: football, rugby, cricket, tennis, American football, athletics and had quite a long spell enjoying kick boxing.

After school he went to Southdowns to study outdoor activities at which he excelled, and we look back with a smile to the time when Olly wanted to include Bob and I with his studies. He needed volunteers to support a practical exercise for his climbing instructor course and decided to ask us.

Unfortunately for Olly we were very much Dumb and Dumber and despite his excellent coaching, were barely able to put the kit on correctly - let alone climb a wall. Typically Olly saw the funny side and swiftly selected some more more able volunteers.

He loved watching sport with Bob and many happy hours were spent watching AFC Wimbledon – and, I understand, lingerie football. I had never heard of this but I am sure Bob will share these memories with you another day.

Olly made many friends throughout his education and continued to keep in contact with them all. Not least his best friend, Kieran, who he met at infant school and who shared his journey through boyhood. And at this point, we would like to mention Kieran’s mum, Sara, known by Olly as Mummacus. We have such fond memories of Olly and Kieran going on their first boys holiday, and Sara ringing to let me know that they were safe, despite the fact that on the first night they’d fallen asleep in a ditch.

Maybe those early adventures were what prompted Olly to do the extraordinary thing of applying for Camp America when he was just 18. The first person in both our families to do something so independently bold.

And what a time he had!

Again, the tributes on Facebook have been quite extraordinary, especially from America, and we’d like to thank everyone who wrote. I don’t think we had really appreciated just what an amazing time he had. Nor how much joy he contributed to camp life. To quote a few of the tributes: Olly was: “always ensuring the kids had the best summer possible.” They loved his “crazy awesome dance moves” and he was “a great friend and the best travelling companion ever.”

But it wasn’t just all fun and games. In true Olly style, the only point we found out that he’d saved a child from drowning was when the parents wrote to him at Christmas to say thank you and send him a present. Olly told us very little of what happened - he was incredibly private sometimes with his thoughts and feelings - and would not share the letter. As usual he played it down and didn’t want any fuss, but we also know that the incident had a profound effect on him in the sense that it made him care for people even more.

We’ve gained so much comfort from the scores of tributes we’ve read (although we couldn’t read them personally as Olly refused to befriend either of us on Facebook).

The most extraordinary thing about them is how consistent they all are. The same words and phrases come up again and again:

the happiest, friendliest, cheekiest, kindest, most genuine, funniest, loving, nicest and honest person with the most amazing spirit and personality that anyone could meet.

He was clearly a one-off.

It seems that he did literally light up people’s lives and constantly make them laugh – not least with his ‘terrible jokes’ and ‘endless selfies’.

And in this respect, we particularly loved Kieran’s comment that he posted.

“Olly, it’s been sunny every day since you’ve passed mate. You really do brighten up wherever you are.”

How very true.

Another comment made by Alice’s dear friend, Kate, also made us smile:

“All these gorgeous girls in pictures hugging you and saying how much they love you Olly – and you were always moaning at me to find you a girlfriend!!!” What WERE you doing lad?! You lil’ heartbreaker.”

Olly had so very many friendships that were loving and caring. He valued all his friends but his greatest friendship was with his sister, Alice.

Alice, we know you know lots of things about your brother that we are not privy to and rightly so, but more importantly we are incredibly proud of the love, support and friendship the two of you shared. It was the kind of relationship between siblings that every parent would wish for. And we know how much you were always there for each other.

Olly also shared a very special relationship with his little sister, Heidi. It was a feature of his personality that he was happy to spend hours playing Barbies with her. Maybe she can tell us whether he preferred blondes or brunettes. Again we never really knew.

It was the tragedy of 9’11 that sowed the seed for Olly wanting to become a fire fighter and we were so impressed with his determination to achieve his dream – and are in no doubt that he would have achieved his ambition. He had the determination and positive attitude that would have ensured he succeeded.

In the meantime, last August Olly was extremely fortunate to join Michael Kors and it was this job that instigated a real sea-change in terms of his confidence, maturity and happiness. How he loved his work – and not least because of the responsibility he was given from very early on. And we would like to say thank you to Rosie and all the team at Gun Wharf for everything they did whilst Olly worked with them; as well as for their recent support. Your kindness and care has been very much appreciated and is deeply touching.

We smile when we remember the story of his job interview. Apparently there were scores of people being interviewed for the positions at the soon-to-be-opened shop. Olly turned up in his James Bond look-alike suit (well cut white shirt, no tie) and was the only man, bar one, in the room. We gather he held court and his personality once again shone through to ensure he got the job as stock-keeper. A role that he took extremely seriously, never complaining at his early starts - or when he was woken at 3am in the morning to check the shop as the alarm had gone off.
Even the new Spring uniform of white jeans, slightly too short, were not enough to dampen his spirits. He just rolled them up and avoided wearing dark underwear! A tip for Michael Kors in the future, maybe invest in 34inch length trousers, not just 30!

Bob and I feel we could go on forever talking about our Olly and our memories. It is a great comfort to us.

However, the most important thing we want to share with you today is simply that he was the most amazing young man who brought so much happiness into our lives and clearly the lives of everyone he knew.

We are so lucky that he loved and cherished each one of us and he was a joy to have within our families.

Olly, we miss you – so much.

And, together with Alice, Donna and Heidi, we will treasure all the precious memories of our time with you. We were so incredibly lucky to have you in our lives.

We love you and you will always shine brightly in our hearts.

Finally, we would like just to say a few words of immense thanks to both our families and all Olly' friends, and ours, who have supported us so much at this difficult time.

We are incredibly grateful for all the love and support and take immense comfort from the heartfelt tributes we have received about Olly and from the fact he impacted so positively on so many people's lives around the world and that we have been able to share your memories of our lovely son. We love you all very much.

As you can imagine, the 10th March was an incredibly difficult night, and we wish to praise and thank the emergency services, particularly Senior Paramedic Alec Shepherd and PCs Fowler and McMurchie, who could not have done any more to support and to comfort us.

We were also surrounded by numerous friends and family. You were all truly amazing, thank you.

Olly you were a wonderful son. We will miss your company, humour, friendship and love every day. Thank you for twenty-two fantastic years. You will live on forever in our hearts we will miss you. Love you and God bless.

Bob and Anne

There will never be enough words to express how much we love our Olly or how missed he is going to be but I wanted to try to share with you how much Heidi and I love and adore our big brother, yes even though I am the elder, Olly was my big baby brother!

I saw a quote about siblings recently that simply says;

"Siblings; a combination of a best friend and a pain in the neck. They might be the most annoying people around you but you love them endlessly."

I think Heidi and Olly would agree that we would get on each other's nerves at times through requests to watch Barbie films (Heidi), need for lifts to various places (me) and control of the remote control in Olly's case. However we love each other greatly and are fiercely protective and immensely proud of one and other. Matt, Olly's soon to be brother in law, was a brother already to Olly and they too had a great bond that even I sometimes could not join.

Olly used to remind me how special and rare he was because with his red hair and blue eyes he was part of the smallest minority in the world that make up 1% of the population. This is rarer than a four leaf clover and gives a small sense of how precious and special Olly was.

Finally there is a quote from Winnie the Pooh's Great Adventures, where Christopher Robin says to Pooh;

"If ever there is a tomorrow when we are not together, there is always something you must remember.
You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.
But the most important thing to remember is, even if we're apart...I'll always be with you."

And I think Olly would be saying this to not only Heidi, Matt and I but to all of you also.

Alice

Family floral tributes only by request, but you are welcome to send donations in Olly's memory.
Olly's family have asked for donations to be split equally between two charities, and as such, are asking that cheques are payable to Lee Fletcher Funeral Services Ltd.
Lee Fletcher Funeral Services will then raise cheques for the Southsea Voluntary Lifeguards and the FDNY Foundation.
Further information can be obtained from Lee Fletcher Funeral Services, 95 High Street, Cosham PO6 3AZ tel: (023) 9238 4455.