John Smith (15 May 1940 - 3 Apr 2017)

In loving memory of John Smith who sadly passed away on 3rd April 2017.

My dad John was born in Gosport but was bred as a Portsmouth boy. He worked at Kendall brothers and lived onsite in his caravan until he met my mum and then I came along not long after.
He had to leave Kendall's due an accident which severed his hand and lost the ability to make a fist as he lost all the tendons but that never stopped him from 'tinkering' as he would have said. He brought his boat - his pride and joy and lived aboard for over 25 years, he would not have it any other way no matter how much we nagged him about it.

Dad would always be having to fix things which didn't even need to be fixed and could make something out of nothing, but it kept him busy and he always would do anything for anyone at a drop of a hat, he was golden hearted like that.

Dad had his blips with medical issues but he always got back up and running in no time.
But that day in September 2016 all our lives changed forever, he couldn't move or speak and was left in a low awareness state after suffering a major brain haemorrhage and a stroke at the same time, this was such a healthy/fit man (for his age), it just didn't seem possible, but he fought on and on and on, amazing the medical staff and keeping myself and my mum on our feet with regular 'emergency calls' as dad would have taken a bad turn but kept on pulling through.

But April the 2nd dad aspirated again and got re-admitted to QA after only being discharged 3 nights prior, once at the hospital I realised that I was the one being selfish, just because I did not want to lose my dad and keep him near I knew then I had to let him go and agree to withdraw treatment and just make him comfortable as can be.
That was the hardest decision I have ever had to make so far in life, but I know it was the right one as my dad would have hated the way he had ended up. I can just imagine him saying 'shoot me'. This was a man that could not bear to sit still.

On April the 3rd my wonderful dad took his last breath peacefully at 5:50pm with mum and me beside him. My heart shattered but I also felt relief for him, I knew he could not suffer no more.

I hope you can join us in saying farewell and celebrate his memories after the service.
And Thankyou all for your continued support - much love to you all

Please can you tick 'attending' if you are coming on May the 12th just so I can have a rough idea on numbers - thankyou
xxx