Adrian Keith Dodd

I think most people think that their dad is perfect, especially when they are young and, if they are lucky, as they get older too.
Although I wasnt one of those people who retained this view through to adulthood, I miss him terribly and still dont belive he is gone.
My dad was funny though. He used to tell us some right stories when me and my sister Alison were little. Like the made up tales about 'in previous lives' like when he was a 'tramp' and lived on the streets. We believed them like you do and even when we didnt, it was still fun.
My dad was born in Banbury Oxfordhsire but we spent the longest time living in Derbyshire. His mum and dad were called George and Brenda and he was their only child.
As a job my dad worked in in various facroties starting on the production side of things and went on to manage others. When he was in his early 50's he took on his own business called 'simply fine foods' (inspired by the Tina Turner song!!) where he bought and organised delivery of hospital meals. Yoou can blame him if you have had a bad catering experience in hospital!! Later on he worked for the Princes Trust as a business advisor and eventualy set up on his own. He called that one Peak Business Solutions.
He and my mum got married in February 1969 and I was born 6 years later, followed by Eleanor 18 months after (who sadly was still born) and finally Alison in 1978. They didnt have a very straight forward life together and he worked away (in the UK where we were brought up) for some years. I know this was hard for my mum and we all missed him.
After 30 years together my mum and dad separated and he met Tina who he went on to marry. We knew that they had been more than friends while mum and dad were married.
In March 2007 he and Tina decided to move to Turkey where they had taken several holidays. They seemed to take to the life there very well. They had a daft dog called Ruby (still do), he always liked animaps and when he was growing up there was always a pet in the house. He and some of the friends they had in Turkey set up a special trust fund for the stray dogs in the area and to get them newtered so the problem of street dogs was contained a bit.
We used to talk on the phone at least every month and catch up on what was going on. He was always on at me to come over with my little boy Jacob (who he always referred to as Jake). It was one of those things that I always intended to do but it the thought of bringing a lively toddler on a 4 hour flight was so onerous and I could never quite face doing it. I regret that now but it's too late for those feelings really. The last phonecall he made to me he told me that he had a bad back and was using a TENS machine to help wioth the pain. I joked about how I hoped it would be more useful than the one I used while i was in labour!

As me and my family were about to go on holiday to Flamborough in August 2009 Tina rang me to say that my dad had been taken into a hospital with a suspected stroke as he had been slurring his words and seemed confused. My immediate response was 'how did you know there was anything wrong then!!' (I have that sort of humour, he always appreciated it and knew that I meant no malace!). Turned out it might have been to do with the amount of painkillers he was taking for his back pain which may have caused some sort of build up in his system.
The hospital had put him into a drug induced coma to try and give him the rest he needed to recover and to sort out the fluid in his lungs.
Throughout the holiday we had updates on an almost daily basis, which I was grateful for, and the news in each phonecall seemed more and more grave. He had gone from having a (minor) stroke (which was recoverable from) to having terminal lung cancer. I was distraught.
When we got back, he had woken up from his drug induced coma that the hospital had put him into to help clear the fluid from his lungs.
After a while when he was able to wake up and move to a normal ward I telephoned him and he knew he was very poorly but things were looking up slightly as he had been sent to a different hospital where the doctor there felt that his cancer was treatable and opperable, once he was fitter. This was brilliant news and we decided that when he was home and on with his cancer treatment we would all go out and see him to cheer him up. Jacob would finally get to meet his other grandad and vice versa.

After a few days, Tina rang again and told us that my dad had suffered a major stroke and was in a coma once again (not a drug induced one, just a normal one that the stroke had sent him into). After several days he didnt wake up or show any signs of recovery and the tests concluded that there was no brain activity, the cancer was unable to be treated whilever he was in this condition and it was a case of what would he die of first?

I decided that I would go out and my sister came too. It broke my heart to leave my family but they coped without me for a few days!
Ali hadnt really been involved with Dad for the later yearsof his life for her own reasons and when we saw him in the hospital I have never seen her so upset. Although I felt exactly the same I have the advantage of being used to seeing people in comas on intensive care wards and although I knew what to expect nothing could've prepared me for the man I saw. Nothing like the big strapping lad I last saw. I played him some Beatles tunes from my MP3 and spoke to him about who he would see when he got to heaven cos I knew by looking at him that there was no way he would come through this.

We decided to leave that same day as there was no earthly point in our staying. I was in complete shock for the days until Tina tang and told us that Dad had died.

I try to remember him like in the picture of him fishing.

Unfortunately I never went to the funeral a few days later (as it is Turkish tradition to have it as soon as possbile) cos I just couldnt face flying again and I felt that there would have been so many people there for it not to really matter about my presence. I did see a rainbow at the exact time of the funeral, maybe there was something in it or a way of my dad visiting me before they comitted him to the ground.

Miss u!