My lovely friend, Keith
Created by Alison 2 years ago
It seems appropriate writing a tribute to Keith on “Eurovision Day” – a day when Keith would normally be hosting a party to celebrate his birthday – and I remember how excited Keith and I were this year when it was announced that the Eurovision would actually take place despite Covid! I met Keith in 2012 when he moved into the neighbourhood and very shortly afterwards, he became a fellow allotmenteer and it was on the allotment that he and I would while away time chatting about absolutely everything usually in English but sometimes in French and through our conversations, we discovered that we both shared the love of language-learning and cats. Keith could speak many languages fluently, but not German and I explained my frustration of being rarely able to practise German and after his death, whilst feeding his cats, I noticed he had a beginner’s guide to learning German – no doubt he was going to surprise me by starting our conversation in fluent German! When Keith was away interpreting, working or on holiday, I always looked after his “kids” (his cats). Keith, Billie (Halliday), Fizz (Elizabeth Taylor) and Oscar (Wilde-cat) absolutely adored each other and every day, Keith went for a stroll with them around the allotment taking photos. Recently, Keith had become really excited about the future as his partner was coming over from Cuba and this had given him a new zest for life – he was going to make raised beds on his allotment, finish his house-renovation, sort out his garden, grow his hair long and he was looking forward to helping non-English speakers in and around Hampshire. The week before Keith died, he planted potatoes on his allotment and he gave me some of his leftovers, they are all coming up now …. So, I say thank you Keith for all the happy moments we shared together – you were such an incredibly intelligent man with a huge heart and I am missing you a lot!