Dad

To most of you here today you knew him as Darren, Dal, Daz, and probably called him much worst at times, me and Jess knew him as Dad... What a fantastic dad he was!

He was strong, wise, caring, funny and at times he was a bit of an arse... he won’t mind me saying that he’s probably called me worst over the years, but it was always in good humour, that’s what was great about dad. He thrived off making people laugh. And he was good at it!

Most of my memories of dad involve humour. However a lot involve him being more than just a dad, he wasn’t just a dad. His was best friend as well. He wrote me a speech for my 21^st birthday, he said that I arrived in May and he should have been playing golf but I scuppered it for him, Dad you left far too early you scuppered the chance to be able to moan at me for when I make your garage a mess and fill it with old car parts!

All of the things I love in life now are because of the way dad brought me up, I remember going to Donnington Park and sitting on his shoulders so I could see the cars, the best journeys were when I was following dad down the motorway, we both knew exactly what the other one was about to do and made sure we gave each other middle finger every time we passed. I remember going to Ireland with him overnight and spending most of the night stopping between breaking down and not being able to find a free hotel, a whole 2 days in the car with dad and I didn’t get bored once!

he taught us both the value of money and how that above all you don’t need superficial things in life to be happy, it was all about family with dad, I know dad loved family but there was nobody he loved more than mum... he would do anything for mum, I spend many years winding him up about it but in reality I admired it, If I’m only 50% of the father and husband dad was I know I know ill have done a good job.